From the Shadows
by samdot26
Summary: A young Eevee is picked by a trainer to be his partner. As they travel around the region of Kanto, he finds that it isn't all fun and games.
1. Pilot

**Arc 1: A New Adventure**

I was awoken by a magnificent light erupting from the mountains located at the horizon, blinding me for a second. I looked away from it, trying to get rid of that annoying spot of light that always gets in the way after you look at something bright. After a few moments of useless thoughts, I remembered why today was special, and not just like any other day. Today was my birthday! And that wasn't the only great thing happening today, for today I was to be picked to be a travelling companion by a trainer. After dwelling on those thoughts for a moment, I decided to get up.

I looked down towards the bottom of the hill I was standing on. A small bush area was to the left, and a pond to the right. The area was still covered in shadow though; for the hill was covering the sunlight that had just made it's way though the mountains, and hadn't made its way past the hill. I have no idea how the sun and moon always move like they do; I have to ask someone someday. Looking up, I saw the apple tree that I had just been sleeping under, the lone apple tree on the hill. I licked my lips as I looked at a ripe, juicy apple. I took a step back, looked down, and slammed my head into the tree as hard as I could.

"Ow," I muttered to myself as I fell onto the ground, grasping my head with my two front feet in an almost human-like manner, I was always considered quite flexible because I could do that. I got up and slowly walked down the hill, almost falling over from dizziness.

I went down to the pond to drink from it, taking notice as I went of the sweet smelling flowers. I looked down at my reflection in the river; same as yesterday, of course. For some reason, a lot of the older Pokemon have been calling me cute lately. I take it as a compliment, but them saying it so often, it's kind of…strange. After all, I'm just like any other Eevee. I took a drink from the water, feeling contempt as the cold water slid down my thought. I gathered some berries and headed back to the top of the hill to eat them. I often considered the hill to be my territory, even though every thing was everybody's. I eat all the berries, feeling full as I did. Afterwards, I heard a noise behind me as if something had just fallen down. I turned around and sighed as I saw the apple I had tried to knock down lying on the ground. Load of good that's going to do me now.

"Morning Dusk," a familiar cheerful voice called to me. "Happy Birthday"! I turned around to be greeted with Dawn, who had been my best friend for as long as I could remember.

"Thanks," I replied to her. We had been friends since we were born, and since many Pokemon come in and out of this enclosure regularly, we've only really had the chance to talk to each other.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you a present today," she muttered in a sad tone.

"It's fine," I said. "Besides, today will be an awesome day anyway."

"I know," she replied, forgetting about my birthday. "I hope our trainers are friends, so then we can see each other lots!" She said hopefully. "Pallet Town isn't a very big place after all."

"But trainers come from all over, remember?" I reminded her. She made an annoyed, yet disappointed grunting noise. "Hey, look on the bright side, if our trainers are friends, it would mean we would have to battle, and you know I would win!" I said in a mocking tone.

This seemed to spark her interest. "You're on," she whispered, just loud enough so I could hear. Without another word, she pounced on me, and the game began. Somehow, we ended up on the other side of the tree when she pinned me down to the ground.

"You going to take that back now?" She asked, imitating the same mocking tone I had used just before.

"Nope," I replied. I shifted my weight and kicked her back legs causing her to lose her balance. I quickly got up and used this opportunity to push her down the hill and into the pond.

"Damn you," she yelled up at me when she got out of the pond, her fur drenched. I apologized very quickly. It took her at least half an hour to dry her fur. After she was dry, we agreed to go say goodbye to some Pokemon we had known for a while, seeing as we only had an hour or two till' midday, where Prof. Oak, the scientist (who was also the owner of the enclosure where we lived), came. After saying goodbye to some old friends, I (and I presume her) overheard a Jolteon and Leafeon talking about me, and saying how cute I was.

"Why do some many Pokemon keep mentioning how cute I am?" I asked, giving away a hint to Dawn that I was frustrated with it.

"But you are, Dusk," she replied, grinning slightly. "I would just take it as a compliment, and leave it at that." "

Your right, I guess," I said, dropping the subject.

Dawn and I had known each other as long as I could remember. My parents (before they were chosen by trainers) told me how they and Dawn's parents came to the enclosure at the same time. Dawn hatched from her egg at the break of dawn, so that's what her parents named her. Three months later, I hatched from my egg at dusk, and so my parents did what Dawn's did, and named me Dusk. It had always annoyed me that my parents named me after the time of day, but I figured it could be worse.

Suddenly, a loud bell rang from the direction of the laboratory where Prof. Oak (we just call him Oak) works, and his calm voice rang out, "Can every Pokemon that is to be taken by a trainer please come to the main door." The bell rang again. Dawn and I both looked at each other and simultaneously let out squeals of glee. We turned towards where the lab was located and sprinted towards it.

We arrived five minutes later, breathing heavily when we stopped. I looked up at a big glass door that opened whenever a human steeped near it. I think I once heard a Ponyta telling a Raticate how it only opens for humans because they're heavy, or something like that. I looked around at the other Pokemon that were being assigned to trainers. Apart from Dawn and I, there were two other Eevee, one male and one female, two Charmanders, both male, two Squirtle, one male and one female, and finally, two Bulbasaur, both male.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oak coming towards us, the door magically opening for him, like always. "Hello," he said to us, "if you are all ready, please follow me," he moved to the side of the door, and gestured for us to come in. One at a time, we all moved into the laboratory. I looked around the new area; I had only been here twice in my whole life. Once when I got an immunation for some disease; I think it was called Pokerus. The other time was when I accidently got struck in the leg when play fighting with a Scyther a few months ago. Since then, I've been trying to resist play fighting with anyone except Dawn.

My thoughts were interrupted by Oak telling us to enter the main room, pointing to a door near the corner. I led the group through the door, excitement building up in me as I went.


	2. Becoming Acquainted

I entered into the room, looking around at the interesting scenery. "What is this place," I muttered to myself. Along the walls were many metallic boxes, with seats in front of them. Many lights were exploding from inside of the, and on top of each was another box displaying a picture of some sort. I walked past some large books made of paper in a pile. The book on top had some strange human symbols on it that I couldn't decipher.

"It says head of Team Rocket murdered," a Charmander who must have seen me look at the book told me.

"Who"? I asked him.

"I'm not sure," he replied bluntly.

"Hey Dusk, where do you think Oak's going"? Dawn asked me. I focused my attention towards the Oak, who was leaving through a wooden door to the right.

"Maybe he's going to get the trainers for us!" I replied excitedly.

"I hope so," she said. Strangely enough, Dawn and I were the only ones that seemed to notice Oak leaving. The others were still in awe of the new room.

A few minutes later, Oak came back in with human, who looked much different then Oak. One, he was much shorter, and two, his fur was black instead of grey, and he only had fur on the top of his head, while Oak had some on his chin.

"Choose whichever you like," he said calmly.

After a moment of deciding, the human said (in a rather harsh tone), "I'll take the Eevee," he said and pointed at one of the other Eevee. The Eevee walked over to the trainer, and he, the trainer, and Oak left.

"What do you think our trainers will be like?" I asked Dawn.

"I'm not sure," she replied honestly.

"I hope their nice," I said, sitting down, seeing as Oak probably wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. "Even if they weren't we would be able to run off, seeing as we would be their only companions," I said. She nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, Oak came in with another human, this one having light brown fur all down the back and sides of his head, but none at the front. I think it was called a mallet or something like that.

"Choose whichever one you please," Oak told him. After a moment of consideration, he turned to me (much to my surprise).

"Can I have that one, professor?" He asked in a considerably less harsh tone then the previous trainer.

"You certainly can," he replied calmly. "Come," Oak said to me.

I turned to Dawn. "I guess this is goodbye," I said sadly.

"I hope we'll be able to see each other." I nodded, and then started walking towards door. I waved back to her.

"See you around," I said.

"See you Dusk," she replied.

I followed Oak and my new trainer into the next room, taking note of my new best friend. He seemed nice enough, but is he aggressive when it comes to battling; only time will tell.

When inside the new room, the trainer kneeled down and looked me in the eye. "Hey," he said gently while stroking the side of my face, it felt nice to have some attention from humans for once.

"I'm Jonathan," he said gently. I looked into his warm blue eyes, he seemed really nice. He then got up from his kneeling position when Oak started talking to him. I didn't pay much attention to them, more so trying to contain myself from excitement. I had been waiting for this day my whole life, and the fact that I'd never been outside the enclose before added to the amazement of the whole thing

Still, I was really sad. Dawn was hoping that we'd still be able to see each other, but I don't think we will, seeing as Jonathans 'clothes' (as some older Pokemon call them) are much different to the clothes that I've see people wearing outside the enclosure. Still, I may be wrong (and I hope I am), because never seeing Dawn again would really suck.

Also, I've lived in my enclosure all my life, and knowing that I'll never be there again is a terrible thought. It's like taking a whole part of my life away. I decided not to dwell on those thoughts though, for the positives defiantly outweigh the negatives. I looked up at Oak and Jonathan. They were talking about what Oak called an electronic dictionary, whatever that means. Finally, Oak looked at me and held up a red and white ball. What was that thing? All of a sudden, the ball flashed, I felt a strange tugging feeling, and in a flash of light, I was teleported from the lab to...the hill from my enclosure.

"Wait, what?" I asked myself. All of a sudden, I felt the same tugging feeling, same flash of light, and I was back at the lab.

"And that's how you use a pokeball," Oak explained to Jonathan. Oh, that's what a pokeball is, a storage device for Pokemon. Now that I think about it, that's quite creepy.

"Well, good luck on your journey," Oak said to Jonathan.

"Thank you, I will do my best to raise this Eevee," Jonathan replied politely.

"Name's Dusk," I muttered to myself.

Jonathan made a 'follow me' gesture with his head, and I followed him out the door, looking around at this new world. It was so different, yet so similar to the enclosure. All those small buildings I saw on top of my hill were no longer small, they were massive.

"Come on, lets go," he said to me.

I walked down the steps outside Oak's lab, taking note of the hard ground as I went.

When we got to the bottom of the staircase Jonathan said to me, "Let's see what you can do." He picked up a nearby stick and stuck it firmly in a part of the ground that wasn't as hard as the steps I had just been on. "Use tackle on the stick," he told me firmly. I didn't know much about attacks, but at least I know tackle. I just hope that he doesn't shout out more complex attacks.

I stepped back, bracing myself for the upcoming collision, and in one quick movement, I launched myself at the stick. Upon hitting the stick, it was uprooted from the ground and hurled a few feet away. I squealed happily, turning back to him to make sure he had seen what I had done. "Good work," he praised. He kneeled down and stroked the fur on my head. A soft purr escaped my throat.

"Hey John," a familiar harsh voice interrupted us.

"Oh, hey Nick" Jonathan replied, getting up. "I guess you'll be heading back to Sinnoh now?" Jonathan asked.

"Yep," the one called Nick (who I recognized as the one who went into Oaks lab before Jonathan had) said. "But first," he said with grin, holding up a pokeball, "care for a challenge"?


	3. Preparations

Nick threw the pokeball towards the ground, exploding in a flash of white as it hit the ground, the silhouette of an Eevee emerging from the light. As the light cleared the Eevee that was picked before me when we were at the lab appeared.

"Hey," he said to me, slightly surprised of being called out of his pokeball. "You're Dusk, right?" He asked me curiously after a moment.

"Yep," I replied happily, "and you are?"

His words were cut off by Jonathan. "Tackle," he called to me. It only took that one word for me to know what he meant. I lowered my head and started running at the Eevee. "

Shade, dodge," Nick shouted. Shade (that was his name, apparantly) jumped to the side as I ran past him, quickly pivoting to the side and slamming into me.

"Damn," I managed to say as I was knocked to the ground. I got up slowly, bracing myself for the next attack.

"Eevee, use tackle again," Jonathan shouted at me. I lowered my head and ran into him, hitting him successfully this time.

He was pushed to the ground painfully, trying to get up, but falling over again while trying to get up. "Hit him again," I heard Jonathan yell behind me. I turned around to him, quite surprised at what he had said.

"Are you crazy?" I asked him rhetorically. Shade was down, trying to get up, there was no way I was going to hit him. For the love of Mew, he better not be one of 'those' people. The sort of people that get aggresive and attack while their foe is down. But then again, this would be his first battle, so I guess I could forgive him.

I ignored my trainers previous orders and waited for him to get up. When he finally got to his feet, he slammed into me head on. A wave of pain shot through me as I was knocked to the ground, winding me. I tried to catch me breath, but it wasn't coming. After a moment, I was able to breath again as I slowly got up off the ground, wincing in pain. Jonathan came over to me.

"Are you ok?" He asked, kneeling down besides me.

"Y-Yeah," I muttered painfully. He pulled out the pokeball and I was returned to it. After a few minutes of resting, I decided to explore the enclosure copycat. Something was not right though, there were no sounds of nearby Pokemon, and I couldn't smell the nearby flowers. Walking past the pond, I hit my head on something hard. "Ow," I muttered. To my surprise, there was a glass dome surrounding the hill and the pond. "The hell?" I said to myself. Why on earth would there be glass in my enclosure?

After a moment of thinking, I came to the conclusion that this was just a simulation of what was once my home, feeling stupid as I realized it. Moments later, I felt that tugging sensation yet again as I was pulled back to the outside world. I was in a building of some sort, a brown colour on the walls, and a cream colour on the floor. "Aw, isn't he cute," an annoyingly high-pitched voice called out. I looked up to see what looked like an older, female version of Jonathan looking down at me with a grin on her face. Who was she? "I hope you have a wonderful time on your journey," she said, turning to Jonathan and hugging him tightly.

"Mum, knock it off," Jon (I'm just going to call him that from now on) said. "I'll just be gone for a few months."

"You'll drop in for a few days and then leave again on another adventure," his mum replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Anyway, have you seen your sister yet?" she asked. Jon shook his head.

I ignored them, this was getting boring.

A few months though, wow. Now that will be an adventure and a half. I was only two years of age, so I'm still technically in the kit stage of my life, although the age of two is regularly considered just beyond that point these days. I had developed my own mind, but is that enough to consider myself older then a kit? Then my thoughts drifted to Dawn. I wonder if she had been picked by a trainer yet, and are they nice? Maybe she hadn't been, and isn't going to be picked? I was her only friend at the enclosure; I hope that she won't be left alone. I shook those feelings aside, and focused on Jon and his mum. She was still hugging him. I yawned from boredom, drawing her attention. "Aw, he's yawning, how cute," Jon's mum said, patting the top of my head.

'Now that is just down right patronizing,' I thought to myself. No wonder Jon had gotten embarrassed when his mum hugged him. The look on his face was quite funny though, I thought, remembering his face from just a few moments ago. 'Mum' then finally stopped stroking my fur, getting up and leaving the room. Saying something to Jon on her way out that I didn't hear. Jon then bent down on one knee, nearly at eye level with me.

"Sorry about her," he said. "She can be annoying, but she's a mother after all. She thinks everything is cute!" He laughed.

I couldn't help but laugh at that myself. My mother used to act like that all the time. Humans and Pokemon really aren't that different after all. Humans really are just a different species of Pokemon. It made me wonder why they aren't considered one of us.

It was then that I noticed mum walking in, an object in her hands that I recognized as a 'back pack'.

She then opened the bag, passing objects to Jon while explaining each of them, one by one. After a few minutes of boring (and I assure you, it was incredibly boring) explanations, she took them off of Jon and put them all in the back pack, then closing it with some sort of metallic object that was attatched to the bag. She handed the back pack to Jon, hugging him straight afterwards.

"I'll miss you," she said with tears forming in her eyes.

"You too mum," Jon said, rolling his eyes when his mum looked away.

After an almost painfully long goodbye, we were on our way. On our way past the people's homes, I stopped to smell the exotic smells. There were the usual flowers that I recognised from the enclosure, but there were also foods that I didn't recognize. The further we got along, the more lovely smells filled my nostrils. I even think I smelled some berries that I hadn't tasted before (at least, I think I hadn't tasted them before, I didn't recognise the smell of them)! After a few moments of walking, the cleverly built houses ended, and I was treated to an open field, going back as far as the eye could see! We were at the top of a hill, looking down at it.

"Well," Jon said, looking down at me, "the adventure begins here. I hope we will have many more after it. And that reminds me, I don't think we have been fully introduced yet," he added. I am Jonathan," he said, holding out his paw.

"Dusk," I said, fully aware that he couldn't understand me. I held out my paw and he shook it. A strange gesture if you ask me.

He got up from his crouching position, and we started on our way down the hill.


	4. The Adventure Begins

The field was so similar to the enclosure, yet so different. It was just…emptier. It was more or less just an open field with some trees dotted around it. "Well, here we go"" Jonathan said to me.

"Yep," I replied quietly.

It was only moments into our adventure when we spotted something rustling around in the grass. "Now what could that be," I heard Jon say to himself. I tried to tell what it was, but the grass was too tall for me to see over it and get am full glimpse of what was hiding there. Damn grass.

What I did manage to see however, was a beak sticking out of the grass, for a moment anyway. After a moment of thinking, I decided that it was definitely a Pidgey, a flying type Pokemon I was quite familiar with. I then saw out of the corner of my eye Jonathan reaching down to pick something up. What could he be doing? My question was soon answered as Jon threw the rock towards the grass, careful not to actually hit the Pidgey. His attempt to draw out the bird Pokemon succeeded, as the Pidgey poked out its head from the grass in curiosity.

As soon as it saw us, a look of anger appeared in its eyes. Suddenly, it flew out of the bushes and flew high up into the air. "Get off of my land," I heard it shout to us, its voice indicating that it was male. It then dived down, attacking us with all his might. Jon had to duck to avoid his attack.

"Eevee, attack it," Jon said. I proceeded to attack as he attacked us again, just missing him as he flew back up to the air. I attempted to hit it again, but ended up with the same result as last time.

"Damn it," I muttered to myself. How would I do this? If I tried to attack him head on, I would be running straight into his beak. He would be too quick for me to get him sideways. And I wouldn't be able hit him from underneath, for obvious reasons. That left jumping on top of him, and using my weight to pin him to the ground. I wasn't the heaviest Pokemon around, but I would be able to weigh down a Pidgey at least. I would have to be incredibly precise for it to work.

Unfortunately, while thinking up my plan, I forgot that I was still fighting the Pidgey. I remembered the moment a sharp object collided forcefully with my side. I groaned in pain as I was pushed to the ground, the wound drawing a bit of blood. I pushed myself to my feet as I looked the Pidgey in the eye, who was flapping his wings just enough to keep him in one spot constantly. "Who are you?" He asked in a relatively deep voice. We were just passing through, what was so important about us staying away from him.

"I'm Dusk, and this is Jonathan. Why do you ask? I asked him, politely.

"I am Aether, and this is my home. Now if you don't mind leaving, that would be great," he said in a sarcastic tone.

"I…can't do that sorry," I replied truthfully. Jon wouldn't allow me to just let other Pokemon go, and I have to listen to him, he was my trainer after all.

"Then I guess I have to make you leave," he told me. This sparked a flicker of fear in me, but I held my ground. I just had to stick to the plan. At that moment, he took to the air, well beyond my reach. He circled around me up in the air multiple times, having with me what would probably look like a staring contest for people passing by.

What could he be planning to do? I'm guessing that he's going to continue his strategy of swooping me then going back to the skies out of my reach, seeing as Pidgey's don't have the widest move pool, no offence to any Pidgey's reading this (who am I kidding, you're probably all human. Why are you so obsessed with knowing the story of an Eevee and his trainer anyway? It's quite pointless when you think about it, it's not like I'll end up saving the world or anything.)

I caught a glimpse of Jon, who like me, was focusing on Aether. I only had one shot at this. He would be able to realize what I was doing after the first try; it's a pretty obvious plan when you think about it. I just had to wait for the right moment; he would be coming down any second now.

Fortunately, I was right, as he dove down at me just seconds later. I had to do this right as he approached the ground. I crouched down low, waiting for the right moment, and as he got nearer, I threw myself up into the air, the wind whistling in my ear. I focused on him as he realized what I had done, and his eyes widened in shock. I reached as far as I could jump, and then pushed all my weight down to the ground, taking the helpless Pidgey with me. There was a satisfying 'thump' sound when I hit the ground, a groan of pain from Aether below me, then nothing.

The plan had worked. Aether was lying on the ground, clearly unconscious. Whew, I was worried there for a second that the plan wouldn't work, it was much more sophisticated (yes, I can use big words too) then any of my battle strategies I had used in the past. Most of my strategies usually involved pinning my foes to the ground.

"Nice work man," Jon said to me enthusiastically.

"You're welcome male Eevee," I said sarcastically.

"I'm going to guess you just made a joke about my comment," he said to me.

"Pretty much," I replied. Good to know my trainer has a sense of humor. And he stayed mostly out of the battle, which was good to know. I would much prefer to do it my own way, rather then someone telling me everything like I'm a kit. This reminded me that it was still my birthday. Shame my parents were weren't around like last year. It really wasn't the same without them, although I don't remember much about them. Because of that fact I wasn't that much of a mess when they left.

After that nothing much of importance happened. We battled a trainer, a few more Pidgey, and blue rat Pokemon that I didn't recognize, the sun moving through the sky as we went. I noticed that throughout our journey Jon kept looking back at me, to make sure I was still following him, which got incredibly irritating after a while. It's not like I was going to run off or anything.

Eventually, we got to the end of the field, the sun having almost disappeared behind the horizon. I was interrupted from my thoughts by us reaching a cliff face. "Eek," I yelled as I pulled myself away from the edge of the land.

"Hold on there buddy," Jon laughed. Damn that scared the hell out of me.

I was drawn to what was beyond the cliff though. A city, much larger then Pallet Town, the town where my enclosure was. The city was half lit up, more building glowing by the second. This was so much more then the pathetic puddle of light known as Pallet Town.

I wish Dawn was here to see this though, she would find it beautiful. I'm not really one to see the beauty of nature, although most of the time it is nice to look at. Talking about Dawn (or thinking about Dawn), I wonder if her trainer is nice, or if she even has a trainer at all? I hope we will be able to battle (presuming that she has got a trainer); I still think I could beat her in a battle though.

I looked over at Jon, he was deep in thought. He seemed a bit sad though, I wish I could talk to him. I hate to see Pokemon (or humans, in this case) sad. He was probably thinking about his old life as well. After a few moments of being deep in thought, he got up from his sitting position and came to sit next to me, and started stroking my fur.

"Great view, don't you think?" He asked, looking at me. I nodded, signifying to him that I agreed. It was definitely a nice view, the city lit up in front of the almost completely covered sun. It had been a great birthday, if not a little sad.

"I guess today can be your new birthday," he said to me. "Who knows, today may actually be your real birthday," he said, which surprised me. I nodded furiously to try and get the point across that it was my actual birthday. The message got to him. "Wait, it's your birthday today?" He asked me, mildly surprised at what I was implying. I made a happy squealing noise to him to tell him that he was right. "Well, happy birthday then," he said, laughing slightly.

We sat there for a few moments in silence, him stroking my fur, which was nice. Finally though, he spoke. "I just realized; I haven't named you yet!" he said to me. Mild horror filled me as I processed what he had just said. I had completely forgotten about that.

I didn't want to give up my name.


	5. The Other Adventure Begins

**This chapter takes place from Dawn's Point of View (POV)**

"Can I have that one professor," the human asked, looking directly at Dusk. At that my heart sunk. I knew we would have to part eventually, but I still can't stand it.

Why was it that my best friend, who I've known all my life, had to just leave? I know that we will probably see each other often, but still, why now, when we are still young?

"You certainly can," Oak said to him calmly. "Come," he said to Dusk. Dusk turned to me. "I guess this is goodbye," he said to me, sadness in his words. "I hope we will be able to see each other," I said to him, blinking back tears as I did. Why was this even sad, I was going to see him again, I hope. He nodded at my comment, and then started walking towards Oak and the human. I was about to run over to him and pull him back, but I restrained myself. Even if I tried, I wouldn't be able to stop him. He has been waiting for this day a long time, I wonder if he's sad at all. No, of course he was sad. I was his best friend that he had known all of his life. Dusk looked over his shoulder and waved to me.

"See you around," he said quietly.

"See you Dusk, replied to him, a lone tear running down my cheek and dampening my fur when he turned around.

Dusk and the two humans entered the next room, Dusk looking up at his new trainer curiously as he entered the room, which I pressure was the lobby. That was all I saw of him, as Oak closed the door. I was openly crying now, why did this have to happen to us. He was my only friend, so what would happen if I wasn't picked by a trainer. Trainers only come every six months; I knew that from experience, so six months of having no friends. NO, I wouldn't let those thoughts creep into my head. The female of the two Squirtle came over to comfort to me, but I told her I was fine and pushed her away, I would rather be alone at the moment anyway. I realized how rude I was being and apologized.

At that moment, a different human came into the room, this one female. Oak followed right behind her. I hope that this one will be my trainer. Unfortunately, she was not, as she picked one of the Charmanders as her starter Pokemon. I sighed a disappointed sigh, would my trainer ever come?

---

Many trainers came and went, none of them choosing me. I was beginning to lose hope. I had stopped weeping, but I was still incredibly miserable. Eventually there was only me, and a Squirtle left. But someone had to come, I knew they would. Dusk wouldn't give up, and neither would I. Both he and I are mentally stronger then you may originally think.

I thought back to what he had said earlier, how females were acting strange around him. I giggled to myself, it was so cute how he didn't know a thing about romance, but then again, he was always cute, no matter how he was acting! We had some good times together.

Wait, what was I thinking? He 'was' always cute, we 'had' some good times together, it wasn't the last time I would ever see him again, I know I would. This couldn't be the last I would ever, in my life, see of him, it just couldn't.

The door opened yet again, and another human came in. They chose the Squirtle. Now I was the last one left. Damn it.

My trainer would come, I know they would. But what if they didn't?

What seemed like hours went by like a flock of Spearow flying over the enclosure, and nothing. No trainers at all. But finally, the door opened, and my heart nearly skipped a beat. There was Oak walking into the room, followed by…no one.

This couldn't be happening, after all that waiting, no one came? This just couldn't be happening. I waited so long, damn it. Oak bent down and patted me on the head. "Well, guess you're the only one now," he said to me in what was almost a monotone, "I'm sorry". Why was this happening to me, this had to be the worst day of my life. No, it had to be a dream. I bit myself hard, and it hurt. I almost started crying, either from the pain of my bite, or from the fact that no trainer had come. It was most likely the latter.

As we walked to the door, a noise rang out across the room, startling me. It was an electronic, yet musical noise that had seemingly come from everywhere, yet nowhere in the room. Oak looked at me as soon as the noise had stopped and smiled. What was so funny, I had lost my one chance of getting out of this place for the next six months. "Well would you look at that, someone came for you after all!" I almost fainted at those words, someone had come for me! I rushed back into the room, but stopped when I realized that the door to the lobby was still closed. Oak walked at a fast pace to the door, opened it and went into the lobby. I followed him into the new room, looking around curiously, almost dying from excitement. I saw a figure standing behind the glass doors. Could that be my new trainer?

I was right. The door opened, and Oak and I were greeted by a female, about the age of the person that chose Dusk. She wore a pink skirt, pink top and black shoes. "Yuck," I said to myself. Her hair was brown, and it went all the way down to her shoulders, her eyes the same colour. She seemed nice enough. "Hello professor," she said to him in a sweet tone. "Is this the last one?" She asked, looking at me and smiling.

"Yes she is," Oak replied. I hope you take good care of her.

"I will," she replied enthusiastically.

Oak then held up an orb that was red and white, red at the top, white at the bottom. In the centre was a small white button, I recognized the weird device as a pokeball. Oak pressed the button on it, it opened up slightly, and a red light shot out from it, slamming into me harmlessly. What was that?

Suddenly, a weird tugging feeling filled me, and a bright red light filled my vision, the sudden change causing me to close my eyes. I tried to resist it, but it wasn't working. But then it stopped. I opened my eyes, feeling relieved that the light had gone. But wait, this wasn't the lab. This was the hill on the enclosure where Dusk and I always hung out.

Fortunately, I knew that Oak was just showing my trainer how the pokeball worked, so I should be let out any moment now. It would have been funny to see Dusk's reaction to it…

---

And here I was, back at the lab, In front of Oak and my trainer.

"Wow, that's like, totally awesome," my trainer said in a more then irritating tone. I giggled when I saw Oak rolling his eyes behind her back. Then, for no reason in particular, she bent down and hugged me till my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. After what seemed like ages, she finally let go of me.

"I'm Robyn," she said. "What's your name?"

Doesn't she know anything? Humans can't understand the language of Pokemon. I didn't bother to answer her.

"Her name is Dawn," Oak said. How on earth did he know that?

"Ha, awesome. That is such a cute name," Robyn said brightly. "I'm Robyn," she repeated. She got up and started talking to Oak.

She was annoying, but at least I had a trainer, I couldn't stand the thought of what had come so close of being a reality. Life in the enclosure without Dusk, that would have to be the most horrible thing ever. But I wouldn't let those thoughts into my head. I focused on Oak and Robyn, they had finished their short conversation. They said there farewells before Robyn picked me up and carried me out of the lab. Now that was embarrassing, let alone uncomfortable. As she walked out of the lab, I was able to squirm out of her grip and jump to the ground.

Wow, this was so different from the enclosure. I was at the top of a hill, looking down past a stairway maid of stone. At the bottom were numerous coloured buildings with green grass around them, and then some trees dotted around the place.

"Here we go," Robyn said cheerfully. Oh great, this would be one annoying trip with her around. No, I would be with her a long time; I have to get used to it. It's no use trying to push her away just because of how she sounds. She's probably great personality wise.

I breathed in the air around me; it seemed different somehow, slightly less clean, maybe.

I wonder where Dusk was at the moment, was he still at Pallet Town, or was he on his adventure yet. Hopefully we will be able to battle each other soon. I wonder, has he battled any one yet?

I looked over to my right, I saw a Pidgey in the distance descending to the earth, and the rising again, and then repeating the process. It was probably swooping some one. Poor things, hope their alright, Pidgey's beaks hurt, I knew that from experience back at the enclosure.

"Well Dawn," Robyn said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It's time for our adventure to begin."

"Yeah," I said to myself, it was pretty exciting when you stop and think about it. All your life, you've been in this boring enclosure, knowing that one day you'll get out and go on adventures. It's a bit scary to think about, but extremely exciting at the same time.

"You ready?" she asked me in an over the top, clichéd manner. I nodded in reply.

"Then let's do this thing," she practically shouted, posing for no one in particular. She started walking enthusiastically down the stairs.

I rolled my eyes, and then followed her.

**I'm 5 chapters in, and not one review? That's depressing! Please review it, it means a lot to me.**


	6. Viridian City

**Dusk POV**

My name, which I've had the honour of calling my own for my entire life (although that's only been two years), was being taken away from me. I wish there was some way to not have it taken away from me. It would be so hard to get used to it.

"What to name you?" Jon muttered to himself.

Was there some way of telling Jon that my name was Dusk. There had to be, I wasn't going to give up my name without a fight.

"Maybe I should just call you Eevee," he said thoughtfully. "Nah, that's too generic." There would have to be some way to tell him my name. I stared at the sunset, trying to think of a solution. Fortunately, the sun had pretty much gone past the mountains, so I was able to see clearly without the sun getting in my eyes. My name was Dusk, maybe I could find a Duskull? No, that wouldn't work. I would have to be extremely lucky to find one of those in Kanto. Duskull weren't common no matter where you are. Maybe the time of day? That could work, because it was practically dusk now. But how would I be able to tell him? It would be too difficult to do that, maybe I should just get used to what ever name he will call me. No, I have to give this a shot!

I made an eep noise to get his attention, which worked, and then pointed to the sky with my head. "Hm, are you trying to tell me something?" He asked. Yes, it was getting across. I gestured with my head to the sky, hoping that he would get the dusk bit. "Sky? You want me to call you Sky?"

Damn, not working. I tried saying my name to him, but he didn't respond to me.

I can't read or write in the human language, so I just had to try the original plan again.

I made multiple gestures to the dusk, all failing. "Night, sunset, dusk?" He asked. "YES," I yelled at him. "You're name is…Dusk?" Jon said, seemingly deep in thought. That was a major relief; I can't believe I just told him my name without using words. He's a smart kid.

Finally Jon looked down at me, smiling. "Well Dusk, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Jon said happily. After just a moment of silence, the sun had fully gone behind the mountains, and it was night time. Jon reached into his bag that he had been carrying for the trip, and pulled out a material based sheet about the same length as Jon. A hole was placed at the top of it, big enough for a human to fit in. He also pulled out something similar to the previous material based object, except it had no hole, seemed to be stuffed with something, and was only about the size of me, or twice the size of Jon's head. It looked soft.

"It's getting late," Jon said. "We should probably get to sleep." I agreed with him, I was getting tired. Jon pulled out of his pocket the pokeball, but I refused to go in. That thing made me feel uncomfortable.

Jon put it back in his bag, and climbed into the big material based object. He moved away from one corner of the long object, which he called a bed. You can lie there if you want." I nodded gratefully. I sat down on the bed. I was right, it was very soft. "Well, goodnight," he said to me sleepily. That was the last thing I remembered, as I fell asleep pretty much instantly.

---

I was awoken by a magnificent light erupting from the mountains located at the horizon, blinding me for a second. I looked away from it, trying to get rid of that annoying spot of light that always gets in the way after you look at something bright.

Eh, where was I? Oh right, I was with Jonathan. Excitement flared up in me at that thought, it was day 2 into my adventure.

I looked over at Jon, he was still asleep. I got up and went to the cliff edge. The morning air filled my lungs and I sighed in gratitude. I was lucky to be living such an easy life, although it was probably going to get harder from here. I considered finding some berries or some water, but I probably should stay with Jon. He would probably get worried that I wasn't with him.

"Hehe, good morning, Dusk," I heard a tired voice say from behind me, startling me. I turned around, greeted by Jon, smiling at me. I smiled back at him.

It was only a moment later, and he was already out of his bed, ready to go. I was still tired, damn my tendency to not sleep much; Although I went to sleep very quickly last night.

Jon then proceeded to take a bowl out of his bag and tip water out of some water carrier into it. "Here you go," he said to me sweetly.

I drank up as fast as I could; it had been a while since I had a drink last.

After I had the refreshing water Jon handed me another bowl, this one full of some brown block like food. I curiously ate the food. It was quite flavourless, although it was slightly tangy at the same time. I think I will stick with berries and fruit.

I ate up what Jon called the 'pokefood' and we continued on our journey towards the city that was apparently named Viridian City (Jon told me that).

It only took us a few minutes to get to the city. It was much larger the Pallet Town, and had a very nice feel to it. It was less clean as Pallet Town though, more industrialized.

First we went to a red building, with a large glass door out the front. "This is the Pokemon Centre," Jon told me. "If a Pokemon is injured, you can just go in, and they'll heal you up. You don't have to pay anything either!" I didn't know what 'pay' meant, but it's a really cool concept any way. If I was hurt, I could just go in there, and when I come out, I would be healed! "Now let's get you patched up. You're still injured from your fight with that Pidgey yesterday."

He returned me to my Pokeball, and I waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Finally, a light shone out across the fake enclosure, and as soon as it began, it had finished.

"What on earth was that?" I asked myself. I thought about what Jon said about it healing me. I checked the cut that I got battling Aether yesterday, and sure enough, it was gone. "Cool," I said to myself.

The now familiar tugging feeling returned, and before I knew it, I was back in the outside world, in the lobby of the Pokemon Centre, which I found kind of funny, because I was inside the centre, not outside.

Jon checked to make sure the cut was gone, which it was, said goodbye to the woman standing behind the counter, and then we continued on our way.

Next stop was a building bigger then a regular house, but was smaller then the Pokemon Centre. "This is the Pokemart," my companion said to me. "You can buy pokeballs, medicine, and other items here!" He explained. Although it was cool that he could get medicines, I didn't see the point of the pokeballs, why would I need more then one?

We went to the counter and he picked out some objects and exchanged them for coloured paper, which confused me. Why would he need to do that?

We were on our way again in just a moment, and as we were walking along, Jon explained to me why he got more pokeballs. "If you were wondering why I got more pokeballs, it's because you won't be the only Pokemon that will be travelling with me!"

"What," I was able to blurt out. So I wouldn't be the only one travelling with Jon. Does that mean that I would completely miss out on some battles? Does that mean that I would be in my pokeball for long periods of time?

A kind of sinking feeling took over me, but I didn't know why. I would still be able to battle lots, I was sure of it.

"I will still have to learn how to use the pokeballs though," he said to me as we started leaving the city.

"Excuse me, but are you looking for someone to teach you how to use pokeballs?" a gruff voice rang out, "because I can help."

A man, about the same age, maybe older then Oak, appeared from behind a nearby building. "Yes please," Jon said. "It would be very much appreciated."

We walked to a nearby patch of rather long grass, maybe a bit taller then me.

"Hold on a second," the man said. He looked around in the grass for a moment, seemingly searching for something. Finally he stopped, and turned around to us, making a hushing gesture by lifting a finger to his lips.

I saw one of those blue rat Pokemon that I had fought yesterday hiding in the grass. "It's a Rattata," the old man said to me and Jon.

He took out of his pockets one the now familiar pokeballs, and threw it at the Rattata. The being tensed as the ball bounced him but nothing happened. That was strange, whenever somebody used one on me; I was teleported to the fake enclosure.

Suddenly, as the pokeball hit its peak, something happened. The ball opened, and the Rattata was bathed in a red light. The light was then sucked into the ball, the ball snapped shut, and fell to the ground harmlessly. So that's what happens when I teleported to the enclosure! I guess I wasn't teleported, and instead sucked into the pokeball!

The ball shook multiple times, the normally white button in the middle red. But finally it stopped, the red button turning white with a satisfying beeping noise.

"And that's how you catch a Pokemon," the old man saying to Jon, going over and picking up the Pokemon storage device. "But remember, most Pokemon are stronger then this Rattata, and can escape from the pokeballs, so it's a good idea to weaken them first."

"Wow, thank you very much mister," Jon said excitedly. "It is very much appreciated; I can pay you if you want."

"No need, you would need the money more then me, any way!" The man said kindly.

"Well, thank you again," Jon said gratefully.

We said goodbye, and then headed on our way.


	7. New Addition to the Team

I was glad to get out of Viridian City; all those buildings were starting to make me feel claustrophobic.

"Cool that I know how to use pokeballs now," Jon said to himself. I was still a bit nervous about having other Pokemon on Jon's team; I'm probably just paranoid though.

I guess I'll find out about if or if not I will still be a major addition to the team soon enough.

We were heading through a narrow path surrounded by trees, the ground below my feet surrounded by dirt. It was much more comfy for my feet compared to the solid stuff back at Viridian.

At the border of the trees and the rest of this particular piece of land was a regular field similar to the area where I fought Aether, but the one defining point for this area was the massive forest looming over the field, located just at the horizon. "Wow," I managed to spit out. Compared to the forest area of the enclosure next to my hill, this was massive.

I looked over at Jon; he seemed surprised by the sight, but not stunned. He's probably seen it on one of those magic boxes that display moving pictures that humans use.

We had only just started our journey for moments before a weird red haired kid holding some sort of net jumped out at us.

"Ya wanna battle?" He asked obnoxiously. At those words Jon called me forwards, which I did. The boy threw a pokeball at the ground, a green worm like Pokemon appearing from it. "Go Caterpie," he said extremely enthusiastically. "Use string shot".

The Caterpie shot out some sort of webbing from his mouth, which wrapped around my feet. I tried to escape from it, but I just tripped over my own feet. Damn webbing.

He proceeded to attack my exposed stomach, which winded me for a moment. Once I got my breath back, I proceeded to get the string shot away from my body, which eventually succeeded, but when I got up, he knocked me over instantly. Idiot moment of the year goes to Dusk.

I got up and dodged his next attack, which came instantly. I saw the look of surprise in his eyes as I dove to the side. "Dusk, go for the side," Jon said to me.

I responded to his words instantly, and proceeded to charge him.

I was surprised how far I knocked him. He flew over to the tree, and crashed into it painfully.

As soon as he realized what had happened, the small Pokemon started crying as he ran over to his trainer, who returned him to his pokeball (without comforting him or any thing, what a great trainer he is (that was sarcasm, in case you humans can't tell)).

"You fluked that win, next time, I'll be ready," the boy said, handing over a small amount of what I now knew as money to Jon.

Jon offered to shake hands with him, but he just turned around and left without another word. What a brat.

---

As we walked through the large clearing, the forest grew closer. Were we going to go through that thing? We would have to, there seemed to be no way around it.

Again, my thoughts drifted to Dawn, I really hope she has a trainer. No, she has to have one. She would have lit a fire to tell me. I thought back to two nights ago.

"_I can't wait," Dawn told me, "tomorrows the big day". A thought drifted into my head._

"_But what if a trainer doesn't come to pick either of us up?" I asked her._

"_I…I hadn't though of that," she told me honestly. "Don't worry about it," my friend told me reassuringly._

"_But what if they don't?" I asked her seriously. "We would have to make some sort of signal to tell each other."_

_I thought about how we could tell each other, presuming she was too. How on earth would we be able to do this?_

"_Wait," she said suddenly. "We could get one of the fire types to light a small fire at the highest point of the enclosure!"_

"_That could work," I said excitedly. "When would we do it?"_

"_Well, we could do it as soon as the sun goes down tomorrow."_

"_That could work."_

"_Then that's what we'll do," she said to me. "Cool," I replied._

"_Well, goodnight," I said to her after a moment of silence._

"_Goodnight, she replied. I wandered up to the top of my hill, and tried to go to sleep, but the excitement was _too_ much. Tomorrow was going to be huge. Finally though, I fell into a deep slumber._

She never lit that fire on the top of that hill, so that must mean she did get picked. I was still a bit anxious that she hadn't been picked. She might have forgotten, or not have been able to. I pushed the thoughts into the back of my head, and focused back on the adventure.

I heard a noise to the side, and instinctively turned around. I saw a white rabbit-like Pokemon looking back at me, a sharp horn on it's head. I would have to be careful of that. I knew the Pokemon as a Nidoran, female to exact. That was the cool thing about Nidoran, they are the only Pokemon where you can easily tell their gender just from a from a far away glance. Apart from humans of course, but they aren't Pokemon, so they don't count.

"Hello," she said politely. "Who would you be?"

"I am Dusk, and this is my trainer, Jonathan," I said, bowing my head. "You are?"

"I have been traveling on my own for a year and a half now, so I have had no need for a proper name. But if you must call me something, you may call me…"

Her words were cut of by Jon, "Dusk, attack her!" He said rudely.

"Sorry, he does that," I said to her quickly. "Want to fight?" I asked, taking an offensive position.

"Sure," she said, "this'll be fun. Good luck."

"You can keep your luck, you need it more then I do!" I said with a smirk on my face.

"Cheeky little bugger, aren't you," she said, before charging me. I knew what to do. Before she hit me I moved to the right very slightly, ready for her attack. Right before she hit me I feinted a dodge to the right, but just as she turned off to the side, I dove to the left. I caught her by surprise and she tripped over her own feet.

"Go Dusk," Jon said. "Get her!" I gladly agreed to his words, and I charged into her side, knocking her over. She was heavier then that Caterpie earlier, defiantly.

I let her get up, I didn't want to hurt her any more then I had to. Finally she got up and assumed a position as if she was about to charge me. The same trick as last time wouldn't work, so I should dodge in the direction I was going to move subtly to.

Suddenly, a horn shot out of her horn. I just jumped out of the way, the attack just striking my cheek, causing it to hurt quite a bit.

"Didn't expect that, did you," she mocked.

"You got me there, I've got to admit," I replied through gritted teeth.

She proceeded to tackle me one more time, but this time I was ready for the attack. Just as she was about to hit me, I ducked down to the ground causing her to instinctively jump over me, which I took advantage of. As she jumped, I reached up and grabbed on to her back legs (which is hard when you don't have opposable thumbs, you lucky people). She couldn't land properly, therefore causing her to fall over painfully.

"Crap," she said, trying to escape my grasp. But I didn't let go, instead biting into her leg. She screamed out in pain from it. I was determined to hold on though. However, something weird happened. My teeth and paws went straight through her!

I looked up to see her turn a bright red colour, and then finally disappear into nowhere. What on earth just happened? I got to my feet, was this an attack of hers?

My question was answered as I looked behind me, seeing a pokeball on the ground, shaking for a moment, but finally stopping.

"We did it," Jon cried out. Did Jon just catch her?

"We caught it!"

I guess that was a yes then. Well, the Nidoran was caught, and another Pokemon joined the team. I looked over a Jon, who was doing some weird made up dance. It looked quite funny actually.

When he stopped, I went over to him and purred happily to signify that I was glad we had caught her, although I was still a bit nervous of the whole multiple Pokemon on the team thing.

"I think I will name her Ruby," Jon said to me.

Ruby, that was a good name, better then just Nidoran at least. That reminded me, I had to ask her for her original name.

"You're wounded," Jon said to me, reminding me of the small cut on my cheek. "Here, this'll help!" He sprayed something from the can on my cheek, which stung for a brief moment. But when it stopped I checked my cheek to discover the wound was pretty much gone!

"Go Ruby," Jon said, throwing the pokeball into the air, a white light exploding from it and creating the shape of the Nidoran.

"Wait, what just happened," she asked.

"Jon caught you, so now you're on our team."

"Wait, so I'm travelling with you guys now?" she blurted out. "Eh, why not," she said after a moment of consideration. "I Wasn't going to go anywhere else. What has he named me?"

"Ruby," I said.

"Eh, could be worse," she said.

"What was you're original name?" I asked.

"My name? Well, before I started travelling on my own I was known as…"

"We're getting close to the forest, we should move on," Jon interrupted. I should probably ask her of her name when Jon isn't around.

I looked up at the forest, the next part of the journey.

I was ready for it.


	8. Viridian Forest Part 1

The forest towered over our heads, carrying an imitating vibe to it.

"That place is called Viridian Forest," Ruby said to me. I looked back at the city. I could barely see it now.

"Wait, why is it called Viridian Forest when Viridian City is so far away?" I asked her.

"Eh, beats me," she responded.

I looked up at the sky, the clouds were a grayish colour, positioned everywhere, making it incredibly hard to see the blue that was normally in the sky. It was going to rain soon; I hope we are in the forest before then.

Finally, we got to the dark forest, just as the clouds above us started weeping.

I looked in, it was difficult to see anything in there, although my eyes adjusted to the darkness in just a moment.

The forest reminded me of the enclosure, whether it was the fact of the many Pokemon, or the many trees, I couldn't be sure. Maybe it was both.

"Why are you living here?" I asked Ruby through the gentle rain, making conversation. "You said you have been travelling on your own for a long time, why is that?"

"My old clan was full of complete idiots, most of them just cared about mating, anyway!"

"Wait, what's mating?" I asked curiously.

"Um, how old are you?" She asked.

"Two years," I responded. I wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," she said with a slight grin. I failed to see what was so funny about it.

"How old are you?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Almost four," she replied. "You must be Jonathan's starting Pokemon".

"Yeah, just met him yesterday," I replied.

I turned my attention to the forest; it was so green and lush. Exotic plants filled it, making it smell gorgeous. I was so lucky to be living here in Kanto. I wonder if the other regions were like this. I knew of the regions of Johto and Hoenn, and I think there was another one, but I wasn't sure of the name of it.

Fortunately, as I found out soon enough, I was still a major part of Jon's team. Although I did miss out on the occasional battle, I still participated in a lot of them.

I looked around a small clearing we had just entered as the rain stopped, again being reminded of the enclosure. There were just so many similarities to it. The clearing was almost completely empty, except for one trainer who had just seen us.

"Well what do we have here?" she asked.

"A battle in a few minutes, if you want to!" Jon suggested.

The trainer grinned at that response. "Fine with me," she said. "Want a double battle?"

"Sure, this is my first time," Jon replied. I wonder what a double battle is, I've never heard of them before.

"Okay, Dusk and Ruby, go," Jon shouted. Wait, both of us? Is that what a double battle was?

"Go Caterpie and Weedle," she shouted. Two bug Pokemon emerged from the pokeballs she was carrying, I was familiar with both of them. I knew the Caterpie from my battle earlier this day, and I knew the Weedle from back in the enclosure.

I've never had a double battle before (or heard of one, for that matter), so this should be interesting.

The battle started off with the Weedle shooting a small needle from its horn towards Ruby. She responded by dodging out of the way, in which the Caterpie charged her. I was too quick for it though, slamming into its stomach. However, I was taken by surprise as one of the needles was shot into my side.

"Damn," I shouted as the pain pulsed through my body. I was able to get it out, but pain shot through me at every beat of my heart. Damn it hurt.

"Dusk, you're poisoned," Ruby shouted at me. "Get to Jon, I'll hold them back!"

I rushed over to Jon, who took out one of those spray cans, except this one was a different colour. I winced as pain shot through me again, it was hurting more and more as time went on. And I noticed that my heart had slowed a bit, that couldn't be good.

He sprayed the liquid on my wound, having no effect at first. But then I noticed the pain fading away, and my heart rate rising again. Thank goodness that was close. I could have died!

I looked over back at the fight, the Caterpie was down, and the Weedle looked pretty injured. Ruby though looked fine, although she looked exhausted.

I rushed over and joined the battle, knocking the Weedle to its side.

"Take a rest," I said to Ruby. "You're exhausted, I'll take him."

"Thanks Dusk," she said, taking a back seat to the action.

The Weedle got up, and shot one of the needles at me, which I dodged. I noticed that it tires him to use that attack. I would have to wait for him to use it next.

Luckily, he used it pretty much instantly, and I used that chance to dodge, and then ram into him front on, knocking him unconscious.

The girl withdrew her Pokemon, and left after saying congratulation to Jon. That was a fairly easy fight.

We continued on our way, only stopping for the occasional battle.

"This is about the halfway point in the forest," Jon told us. It was night time at this point, and I was getting tired. We set up camp (or Jon did, to be more accurate), and got ready for the night. Jon was the first one asleep.

It was a great night, completely dark except for a small camp fire that Jon had made, and the half moon above us.

"Hey Ruby," I said.

"Yeah Dusk?" she asked.

"I was going to ask you sooner, but Jon would probably have interrupted. But I have to know, what's your original name?"

She looked at Jon for a moment before responding. "My name is…"

Before she was able to finish, Jon yawned loudly, interrupting her again. We looked at each other.

"This is getting annoying," I said.


	9. Viridian Forest Part 2

**I was going to put this up Christmas day, but decided that's too long for you guys to wait.**

I went to sleep long after any one else had. The night was full of thoughts involving the enclosure, Dawn, and what would come next in the journey.

Finally, I fell asleep.

"Dusk, wake up," a voice said to me. What on earth is going on? I opened my eyes to be greeted by Jon smiling at me, which was startling.

"Morning Dusk," he said cheerfully. "Today we are going to get our first badge!

I wonder what a badge is. Either I had never heard of one or was too tired to remember. It's probably the latter, or both. It's probably both.

I looked over at Ruby, who was sitting down below a tree. I wonder how long she had been awake for. She looked tired, so probably not very long. The campfire had gone out long ago, the logs covered in complete black. I yawned; I was still tired, probably because I hadn't slept too long. I wonder how Dawn is doing, has she passed us by now, is she at the next city?

I just realized how much I had been thinking about Dawn recently, I never thought that much about someone since my parents left; strange.

I got up and went over to the familiar bowls of water that Jon used to put the food and water into. I had some of the water but decided to pick an apple off a nearby tree rather then eat some of the brown block food that Jon had. Ruby ate it though, seemingly enjoying it.

It wasn't long before we got ready to go, and in a moment set out on the next part of the journey through the forest.

- - -

It was about an hour into the next part of our adventure when Jon spotted something rustling in the bushes.

"I'll go ahead and look," he said. As he went of into the distance, a thought popped into my head. "Ruby," I said, getting her attention.

"Eh, yeah Dusk?"

"Quickly, while Jon is busy, what's your name?"

"It's…"

"Hey guys," Jon interrupted.

"My name is…"

"There's a Pokemon here," he interrupted again, sounding really excited.

"I'm not going to bother with this," I said irritably.

I focused on Jon. I wonder what kind of Pokemon it is he's seen. He made a really big deal of it just being a Pokemon, so it has to be one we don't know, or haven't seen before.

I saw over the bushes. It was mouse Pokemon, yellow in colour. It had a lightning bolt shaped tail, and large red dots on its cheeks. I recognized the creature as Pikachu.

I looked over at Jon, who was almost drooling at the sight of the Pikachu. Hasn't he ever seen a Pikachu before?

"Please stop looking at me like that," he said to Jon.

Jon looked over at us, and after a moment of consideration, picked Ruby to fight him. That slightly disappointed me, but hey, I will still be able to fight lots!

"Hey, what's going on?" The Pikachu asked nervously. After a moment of Ruby explaining what was happening and why Jon wanted her to fight him, he agreed and got ready for it.

The fight started off with Ruby shooting a needle at the Pikachu, and then charged him as he dodged out of the way. She was just a bit too slow, as he jumped out of the way again, and sent and electrical shock from his cheeks into Ruby's side.

Ruby hunched over in pain, but was able to get up after a moment. The Pikachu then charged Ruby head on, but she was too fast for him, as she launched one of the needles into his chest.

The Pikachu was pushed over by the force of it. Fortunately for him, the needle didn't stay in his chest for long, as it fell out harmlessly when he hit the ground.

He got up slowly, catching his breath from the blow.

"Give up?" Ruby asked sarcastically.

"Don't count on it," he replied slowly.

"You actually think you can beat me?" Ruby asked.

"No, I know I can beat you," he replied.

"Is that so?" Ruby said to him.

At that, the electric mouse ran forward at a blinding pace, slamming into Ruby. How did he get that fast?

"Damn," Ruby said. "I didn't see that one coming!"

She got up and then shot another needle into his side, but just missed, as he dodged to the side.

Ruby looked a bit dizzy, but she kept her ground. The Pikachu looked a bit tired as well, but also kept his ground. I should probably take Ruby's place in a moment. I went over to Jon and got his attention.

"Do you want to fight?" he asked, and I nodded. "You can probably finish him off instead of Ruby, but you'll have to wait a minute. She still looks like she could fight.

The Pikachu ran forwards, and so did Ruby. Were they going to run into each other? I right, they slammed into each other with a good amount of force.

Although I don't think the Pikachu accounted for Ruby's horn, because the fur on the top of his head turned red, and he fell to the ground grasping it. Ouch, that must have really hurt!

Jon got out another pokeball of his pocket, and threw it at the creature, the red light engulfing him and sucking him into the pokeball.

The pokeball slammed shut and fell to the ground shaking around, the button in the centre flashing on and off, on and off.

Would Jon catch him? I hope so, because he seems like he would be a great addition to the team, and the shorter this takes, the shorter it takes to get out of this bloody forest.

Finally, the ball stopped shaking, and the Pikachu was caught!

"Yes," Jon shouted. He rushed over and picked the ball up, grinning triumphantly as he did so.

"Well would you look at that," Ruby said, walking over to me, breathing heavily as she did so, "he caught it."

"What do you think Jon will name him" I asked.

"Eh, no idea," she replied.

"Same," I said.

"Well, I caught it," Jon said, walking over to us.

He threw the pokeball into the air and it exploded in a flash of light, the Pikachu being released.

"Guess I was caught?" he asked, clenching his head from dizziness, his wound had stopped bleeding, which was a relief. Wouldn't wanting him dying from blood loss right after he was caught now, would we!

"Yep," both Ruby and I said at the same time.

"I think I will name you Gold Jon announced to us.

Hm, that's an alright name. I probably would have named him something more generic, although now there's Ruby and Gold! I'm sensing a pattern here.

"Gold*? I like it," 'Gold' said.

- - -

We travelled for the rest of the day, nothing much happening. A few battles, and I found out that Goldwas really fast! I wonder how Dawn is going; I bet she's past us by now.

Finally we got to the end of the forest, the trees parting to reveal a new city, made almost entirety of stone!

"Pewter City," Jon said. "It's time for the first badge."

Here we go.

**Please review, it means a lot to me. Merry Christmas! **


	10. Training Session

"I suppose you want to know what badges are," Jon said to Gold, Ruby, and I as we walked into Pewter City.

I always though badges were just colourful pieces of material that humans put on their clothes.

"Every trainer wants to be the greatest in the world," he told us. "But there was no way for the officials to measure how good everyone is without going all over the planet and finding every trainer in the world, if they did, it would take years. So they made what was called the Pokemon League. It's a place where all the greatest trainers go and compete with each other, once a year, over a 14 day period."

Oh, I get it. That's why Jon became a trainer in the first place. But that doesn't explain why he wants some plain old badges.

Jon continued, "But not everybody can enter the Pokemon League. To show that you are strong enough to enter, you have to beat 8 special trainers. To prove that you have beaten those trainers, they give you a special badge!"

So that's what a badge is. Now that I think about it, I remember hearing some Pokemon back at the enclosure talking about it, the Pokemon League.

I never new what they were talking about (of course), but now I get it.

I also remember them talking about how their trainers were going to be so good, that they will get nine badges or ten. One of them even said a hundred, but I'm quite sure they were all exaggerating!

Now that I think about it, I never knew what we would be doing when traveling around.

I guess I always thought we would just be going around, seeing different places.

"And that is why we are here, at Pewter City. This is where the first Gym, a place where you get the badges from, is. The Gym leader's name is Brock. He is the person we have to defeat to get the badge. He trains mostly rock type Pokemon," Jon told us.

Hm, Rock type Pokemon? That could be difficult. Mainly because I'm a normal type and I have a disadvantage.

"We should start training," Jon told us. "If we want to have a good chance at beating him, we should start practicing. Especially you Dusk!"

What?

"Don't worry, I'm joking," Jon said, laughing a bit! "You're doing fine, so are the rest of you."

I'm glad he was joking, because I probably would have bitten him otherwise.

- - -

We started the training in two groups, one group would be two Pokemon battling each other for 5 minutes, and the other one would practice their attacks with Jon helping them. After the 5 minutes were up, we would switch, so we could all face each other. Every three times we did that (that's 15 minutes for you humans); we would take a five minute break, and then start again.

"Okay, I'll be facing Ruby now," Gold said. We switched places; I was practicing with Jon now.

"Okay Dusk, let's try some speed training," Jon said to me. "You can start by doing some laps."

Five minutes passed really quickly, I was surprised. Finally we switched over, I was facing Gold now.

"Think you'll win?" Gold asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," I replied. "You fluked you're win last time, and don't you forget that!"

"Let's test that theory!" Gold said.

We walked to either side of the small grass field we were using, and got ready for the battle.

I noticed for the first time this weird feeling inside of me, deep down, what was that. I focused on it, and for just a moment, it spread though my body, but as quickly as it had come, it disappeared again.

I focused on it again, and it returned. I looked up, Gold was charging me. I was going to dodge out of the way, but he was too close.

No I had to try. I ran to the side, faster then I ever had in my life. How on earth did I do that? That was incredible.

"I didn't know you knew how to use Quick Attack," Gold said, surprised.

"Wait, I used Quick Attack?" I asked. He nodded. I had no idea I could do that. "How did I do that," I asked myself.

"I had trouble figuring out how I used it when I first got it too," Gold answered. "To do it, you have to tap into the energy inside of you. Can you feel it inside of you?" I nodded. "You just focus on it, and then sprint forwards," he said.

I focused on that power inside of me. "You mean like this?" I asked, using my new power and crashing into him. He was knocked into a nearby tree.

"Hey, I was showing you how to use it!" he complained.

"Let me remind you that we are still battling," I replied cheekily.

"I guess," he said.

He got back up, and we continued battling. Even with the Quick Attack, my newest power, he still managed to defeat me. The final blow was dealt as he used his Quick Attack and slammed into my side, throwing me to the ground. I wanted to get back up and continue fighting, but it hurt so much, I didn't want to continue.

"I give up, you win," I said to him.

"Guess it wasn't a fluke after all!" He said, smirking.

We practiced for a while longer, and finally, we left, ready for the Gym. "Nice work, you guys!" Jon said to us. "You all did great!"

I was a bit glad to stop training. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, and I learned a new move, but it gets boring fast!

I looked around the city, it seemed quite bland. Although there was colour here and there, it just made the grey of all the stone stand out even more. Although it did seem a tiny bit poetic, in a sad way.

Finally we got to the Gym; it was made of rock, like almost every single thing in this city. On a big sign at the top were some more of those human symbols. They were really confusing. I looked inside the glass doors, but I couldn't see much.

"Boulder badge, here we come," Jon said enthusiastically.


	11. Taking on the First Gym!

I was hoping that we would go straight to the gym, but Jon thought that we should get some potions before we do it, to my disappointment. I was hoping we could go straight there. Oh well

"Hey Dusk," Gold said as we walked to the store, calling my attention to him.

"Yeah," I replied.

"You're an Eevee, so you can evolve into 7 or 8 different Pokemon, right?"

"7, yeah," I said to him.

"So which one would you choose?" He asked curiously. I had thought about this subject many times before, but I had never talked about it with anyone other then Dawn.

"Hm, I don't have one single preference, all of them have their advantages," I said to him.

"Flareons are able to breathe fire and stand really hot temperatures, so it would be good when I'm cold, I could just light a fire to keep me warm.

Jolteons are fast, but that's the only positive I can think of.

Vaporeons would be one of my preferences, being able to breathe underwater would be so cool. I would love that.

Espeons would also be one of my favourites, using psychic powers and reading the minds of Pokemon would be amazing.

Umbreons, not really one of my favourites. I would be able to see better in the dark, but that's about it. Although, dark types don't have many weaknesses, so that would be good.

Glaceons are alright, and I could make ice out of the air, and then turn them into water when I'm thirsty. But there is not much apart from that though. I do like ice types though; they are very 'cool'!"

We laughed a bit at that, and got a strange look from Ruby. "Nice one!" Gold laughed.

"Anyway," I said. "Leafeons can use photosymphasis, so I wouldn't have to eat much, which is cool.

I don't know though," I finished. "They all have their advantages. I would probably choose Espeon or Vaporeon."

"You should choose a Jolteon," Gold insisted.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"Because you could be an electric type, just like me," he said, laughing.

- - -

It didn't take long for us to reach Pewter Gym, and when we did, I was almost as excited as when I first met Jon. I looked up at the Gym. It was made almost completely of rock, with a wooden sign saying 'Pewter Gym' on it, and some glass doors. It was surrounded by flowers covering all sides of it, except for a path made out of what looked like cheap marble. It looked quite fancy if you asked me, apart from the marble.

"Is everyone ready?" Jon asked us. We all nodded. "Great," he said, "then let's go."

The inside of the Gym would probably have been pitch black, except there were artificial lights surrounding the big lobby that we had just stepped into. There were a few human objects that I knew as chairs.

Jon walked up to the counter, a lone human woman behind it.

"We are here for a battle with Brock," Jon said. "Are we able to see him?"

"You are Jon, correct?" The lady asked.

"I am," Jon replied.

"Then go right ahead," she said politely.

"Thank you very much," Jon said.

We walked into the next room, the lights illuminating it as we went. I looked over at the back wall. A glass window and door stood in the way of me and the silhouette of a human behind it. From the looks of it, I'm guessing it's not only a human, but the Gym Leader known as Brock.

The man went over the door, and stepped into the room that we currently inhabited. He had brown hair, black eyes, and was taller then Jon by quite a bit. He wore a brown shirt with the logo 'Gym Leader' on it.

"You must be Brock," Jon said to the man.

"Indeed I am," Brock said in a deep voice. "Do you wish to battle me?" he challenged.

"Yes, I do" Jon said.

"Give me your best," the Gym Leader said.

"Fine then," Jon said. "I'll start with Dusk," he said. Yay, I got to go up first!

I saw everyone start walking back except for me, and I was about to follow them, and ask what was happening. But I noticed for the first time that I wasn't standing on normal ground, I was standing on the field that the battle would take place on. That was convenient.

Brock threw a pokeball into the air, releasing a beam that exploded when it hit the ground. A rock came out of it. Seriously, a rock! That's not even a Pokemon!

For the first time, I noticed that the rock had arms and a face, and it was floating!

"That's a Geodude," Ruby shouted to me. "Their rock types, so you have a disadvantage."

"Thanks," I called back to her. Damn, this could be tricky. I might as well just stop now. No, I have to fight him, for Jon.

"Go Geodude, use tackle," Brock shouted.

The Geodude tackled me surprisingly fast, but I had time to dodge. I rushed forwards and ducked as the Geodude came close to me. Fortunately, because it floated, I was able to miss it.

Should I attack it, or shouldn't I?

"Dusk, get it!" Jon shouted. Guess that answers that question. I rushed forwards, the Geodude tried to dodge out of the way, and it almost worked, but I just hit his side.

He fell to the ground, and so did I. Ow, that really hurt.

I got up again, waiting for the next attack. He got up a bit slower then I did, so it gave me time to admire how hard his body is. That really hurt.

Once the Geodude got up, he grabbed a rock, and pelted it at me. I was too slow to react. The rock slammed into my face. I closed my eyes from the pain, and the moment I opened them again, he slammed into my chest.

I fell to the ground it pain. Should I get back up? But it hurts so much, maybe I shouldn't.

"Go Dusk," Gold shouted to me.

No, I have to get up, their counting on me. I stood back up and prepared for the fight.

"I will beat you," I said to the Geodude confidently.

"Truly pathetic!" he shouted back at me. "You are so foolish, thinking you can beat me," he said getting angry. Wait, what did I say to make him angry?

The Geodude got as many rocks as he could find in the two seconds in which I had no idea what he was doing. He threw them all at me at once. I knew what to do.

I turned to the left, focused on the energy, and used quick attack to dodge.

As I dodged, I pivoted to the right, and slammed the Geodude to the ground.

The Geodude was just able to get up, but he looked quite dizzy.

He got up again, and I grabbed onto his back. I put my face up to his rock body and bit into it. While that may have seemed stupid at first, it was his body either, so it should have an effect. It was hard to bit down on him, but it worked.

He threw me off and started rolling around in pain, grabbing his back.

My teeth really hurt now; maybe that wasn't the best idea.

"Geodude, return," Brock said. It worked though; we had beaten the Gym Leader. That was easier then I thought it would be.

To my surprise, Brock pulled out another pokeball from his pocket.

"You may have won that fight, but you will not win this one."

What was he going to do?

"Go Onix," he shouted. I had heard the name before, but I wasn't sure what kind of Pokemon it was.

Out from the pokeball came a massive, and I mean massive, snake Pokemon made out of rock. It towered over my head.

"Eep," I managed to mutter.

The Onix's tail rose into the air, and crashed down as fast as lightning to where I was standing. Luckily, I was able to dodge it with my quick attack. He kept trying to hit me, and I kept on dodging him. This wasn't that hard.

But I was tiring quick. I had to attack him, or this would all be for nothing. I used the last of my strength on a quick attack, slamming into its side. The Onix shouted in pain, but that was all that happened. I was in more pain from hitting him then he was from being hit.

"Don't give up Dusk," Ruby called out. I had to listen to her, I couldn't give up. He lifted his tail one more time, and sent it crashing down back to the earth.

I tried to get out of the way, but I was too tired to use quick attack. I had to try though.

But I was too late. The tail slammed into my legs, and I fell to the ground, hitting my head as I landed.

I was knocked unconscious.

**Again, please review.**


	12. The First Badge

**Dawn POV (This takes place the night of the day after when the previous chapter took place)**

I sat there, in front of the blazing fire. Night had consumed the opened field where Robyn, the other Pokemon and I lay. Looking up, I saw a mountain looming in the distance. Robyn had told us about a channel of caves running through it. She has told us how the next Gym lay on the other side of it. I looked up as a single raindrop fell onto my nose.

I looked over at Robyn. She was admiring the first badge we had collected. We had obtained it from a large city nearby. It was known as the Cascade Badge.

The badge was the shape of a perfect raindrop, light blue in colour. It was made from either cheap metal or expensive plastic as far as I could tell.

After this Badge, we had to collect 7 more.

Robyn looked up at the dark sky, seemingly noticing the rain falling down. She reached into her bag, and pulled out multiple small material based objects I knew as blankets. She walked over to me and all the other Pokemon that she had captured along the journey and carefully put them over all of us to keep us warm and dry.

I looked over at all the different, unique members of our team.

First was Aether, a young male Pidgey. He sat on a low branch, just staring off into the distance. Although he was very reluctant to join our team at first, he has adjusted quite well over these past few days.

Next was Emblem, a female Pikachu. Although I have to admit she has an unusual name, she is quite smart when it comes to her battle strategies.

And finally there is a male Butterfree, who we just refer to as Butterfree, as he was nameless up until he was caught (although, Robyn refers to all of us except me as their species name). We had caught him just yesterday morning, making him the newest addition to the team.

In my eyes, Robyn has assembled quite a great team, combining multiple types with some great fighting styles.

I'm curious to know how Dusk and his trainer's team are going. Have they made a team of more Pokemon then Robyn has? I remember Robyn telling me once how a trainer is only able to have 6 Pokemon on the team at one time! So they obviously couldn't have that many more then we do.

I wonder, do he and his trainer have more badges then we do? Or do they have none? I really wish I could see him again.

The last time I saw him was four days ago, I think. It was when he left with his trainer.

I can still remember when Robyn came to get me so clearly, that had to be one of the best days of my life, despite the obvious sadness involving Dusk.

When we first left Pallet Town we met Aether, defeated him, and then captured him. We then went to Viridian City to challenge the Gym Leader there, but it was temporarily closed, so we couldn't. We were going to go through the forest that was on the edge of the city, but Robyn decided we take a shortcut to Cerulean City, where we met Emblem and got the Cascade Badge. Shortly after that we met Butterfree.

We had done a lot in such a short amount of time, I was surprised.

One thing that annoyed me though, was how Robyn kept making up words. I had managed to decode some of them though.

When she says 'lol', it means she finds something funny. When she says 'wtf' she is usually angry or confused. And when she says 'omg', she is excited about something. I have yet to decode what the fourth word, 'roflmao', means though. I think it may have a similar meaning to lol, I'm not sure.

To say that I find it annoying though is a lie, as I couldn't care less. Actually, I don't find any of the members of our team to be annoying. Although, Aether complaining how he wanted to leave us when he was first captured was irritating, but I've gotten used to it by now.

Either way, I still miss Dusk. I just want to stay with him forever. I hope he misses me too…

- - -

**Ruby POV (this takes place the same day as the previous chapter)**

As the smoke cleared, I realized that Dusk was most defiantly unconscious. Not dead, luckily, as I could still see him breathing, but unconscious.

He did well surprisingly well against the Onix though. While not able to damage it, he was able to tire it.

I wonder, could he be a suitable mate for me?

"Damn it," Jon said, withdrawing Dusk into his pokeball. "Ruby, you're up," he said.

Let's do this.

The Onix started by smashing its head to the ground. I was able to jump out of the way, fortunately. To my surprise, the attack didn't hurt the Onix at all.

Before he was able to get up again, I slammed my horn into his side. It didn't have much effect unfortunately. The Onix got up again with little more then a grunt.

The Onix proceeded to bring his head to ground level and slide along it, leaving a large dust trail behind him. I jumped onto his head, and the past it, landing where the dust was just settling. I noticed as I looked around that I had hurt him by jumping on him! Only slightly, but much more then when I hit his side. Is his head his weak spot?

I decided to test that theory. I jumped to the side of him and focused on using Poison Sting on him. A small dart shot out of my horn and slammed into his side, just breaking the skin (or was it rock). However, I decided not to use poison, I only use that in emergencies.

The attack didn't have much of an effect on him. I was right, I had to aim for the head.

His tail came crashing down, again and again. I was forced to dodge out of the way, and at the same time constantly using my Poison Sting, which missed every time. Finally though, one of them scraped across his head.

He collapsed in pain from the blow, writhing in agony, although I had just scratched his head.

I suddenly realized that he did not have that protective layer of rock on his head, unlike the rest of his body. It was just a sensitive layer of grey skin, which makes it blend in with the rest of his body.

The attack left a small scratch across the side of his face. If I could just hit that I would defeat him.

I needed to find a way to hit him on the exact same spot as before. That should beat him.

But it is too risky to attack him from here; I've already tired myself out quite a bit. I had to hit him directly.

The Onix started trying to hit me with his tail again, this was getting annoying.

Finally he hit me, and I was thrown to the ground. Damn it, that hurt. I had to concentrate and I had to think of a plan, otherwise he would defeat me!

Let's see here, there were no rocks on the battlefield, it was all flat, so I couldn't climb anything. His head was too large, so I couldn't jump on it. What else was there to do? Would I just have to start shooting again and hope for the best? No, that wouldn't work. I was extremely lucky that I hit him in the first place.

His tail came crashing down and I dodged. I looked over at the tail, a plan suddenly forming in my head.

His tail was small enough for me to jump on, and if I did that I could travel up it and reach his head. But would I be able to do that? It would be extremely difficult to pull off, but if I did, he would be defeated.

But if I failed, he would beat me. What to do, what to do?

No, I should try it; otherwise I may never beat him!

I just had to wait for the next time he does it.

I started slowly circling around him, checking myself for injuries. There was a small cut and a bruise from when he had hit me, but that was about it. I must be lucky, when he hit Dusk, he was knocked unconscious.

Wait, what if the trainer has more Pokemon after this? Would I be able to defeat them? I guess Gold would be up then if I was defeated, but he is an electric type and has a disadvantage against Brock's rock type Pokemon. I'm not even sure if I could beat the Onix! But I had to try.

His tail came crashing down, and I rolled out of the way. This was my chance. I jumped up onto the tail and started climbing. This had to be the dumbest plan ever!

The Onix's body was made of 9 large boulders, and I had already climbed three of them, so that left six left.

The Onix started flailing around his body wildly, so I held onto the fourth rock with my front paws, as my back ones were thrown off of him. But I had to keep climbing. Slowly I pulled myself up him. Fortunately, he wasn't completely vertical.

Eventually I got to the top and saw the cut on his head, just below his horn. I only had one chance to do this, otherwise it wouldn't work.

I noticed that he was shaking his body more wildly then before, I have to hold on, or else falling would instantly knock me unconscious, or worse.

I jumped off the last boulder and onto his head. I quickly aimed my Poison Sting at him, adding just a tiny bit of poison to it, so if he was still able to fight, it would stop him, but not kill him.

In a flash I shot the dart into his cut, and was thrown off him. Luckily, I landed on my feet, so it didn't hurt much.

The Onix let out a massive roar of agony and fell to the ground in pain. I went over to him, he was still in pain, and almost unconscious. I grabbed the dart and pulled it out. The Onix let out a massive roar before losing consciousness.

"Onix, return," Brock shouted, returning him to his Pokeball. Have we won?

Brock walked over to Jon as I walked over to him.

"Good work Ruby," Jon said, smiling.

"Congratulations Jonathan," Brock said to him. "Your Pokemon are well trained! And for that, I give you this, the Boulder Badge!"

Brock passed Jon a metallic grey object, Octagon is size.

"Thank you very much," Jon replied excitedly. They said goodbye to each other, and we left.

"Hey Ruby," Gold said to me.

"Yeah," I replied.

"That was amazing what you did back there," he said to me.

"Eh, it was Dusk that did most of the work. But thanks, anyway. It's just a shame that you couldn't fight."

"That's fine," Gold replied. "I hope he picks me for the next Gym though."

"I'm sure he will," I said back to him.

"Let's go to the Pokemon Centre," Jon said to us. "We can get you guys healed up!"


	13. On the Road to Mt Moon

**Dusk POV**

I woke up in a white room, strange machinery around it. I looked down at myself; I was in a much larger version of Jon's sleeping bag. Covering all of my body except for my head and front paws was a white piece of material. I tried to move it but I felt an extreme pain spreading throughout my body. What on earth is going on? I then became aware of a piece of material, stuffed with what I presume feathers (it felt like feathers). It was incredibly soft. I looked out the window at the side of the room. I saw a long grass field, filled with flowers, trees, and all sorts of plants. On the border I saw multiple homes, all positioned neatly in a straight line.

But what on earth had happened to me. I tried to remember back to my most recent memories, but nothing.

I did remember, however, fighting an Onix for Jon so we could defeat Brock, the Gym Leader. I think I remember the Onix crushing me with his tail, but I couldn't be sure if that happened, or it was something I made up.

Although, I could have been knocked unconscious from the blow and have been taken here, but I'm not quite sure where 'here' is. I would imagine I was in the Pokemon Centre. But the last time I was here, I was just returned inside my Pokeball, and then healed automatically.

If I had been knocked unconscious, does that mean we lost? Brock was allowed to use two Pokemon, so I'm guessing Jon was too. But would he choose Ruby, or Gold? Gold has a type disadvantage, so he probably would have picked Ruby. But she is weaker then Gold, from what I've seen, so Jon might have picked him!

I yelled out for someone, but that just made my head thump. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Although the shouting did give me a headache, it worked. Just moments later, a woman dressed in white came in, followed by Jon and Gold, who was sitting on his shoulder.

"Hey Dusk," Jon said calmly. "Are you okay?"

The nurse answered for me. "You're Eevee is still hurt, but he should be fine to leave with you, if you wish," she interrupted.

"I think I will take him with me now, if that's okay with him," he said looking at me.

"Yep," I said, nodding my head.

Gold jumped off Jon's shoulder, and onto my bed.

"How are you feeling," he asked me.

"Fine," I replied. "Although my head does hurt a bit," I added. "How did I end up here?"

"You were knocked unconscious by the Onix, so Jon took you to this Pokemon Centre after the battle."

That reminded me. "The battle, how did it go?"

"Great, Jon sent Ruby into the battle after you. She climbed up the back of the Onix, and used her Poison Sting right in its face," he said quickly.

"Wait, what? She climbed up the Onix?" I asked.'

"Yeah, it was incredible," he replied vaguely. "But after that, we won, and Jon now has the Boulder Badge," he said.

"Awesome," I said. "But where is Ruby now?" I asked.

"She resting in her Pokeball," Gold replied. "Do you want to see the Badge?" He asked. I nodded.

Gold jumped up onto Jon's shoulder, getting his attention. "Yeah Gold?" he asked. Gold pointed down at a seemingly random spot on his jacket, and then pointed at me. "Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me," he said to Gold. He then took something out of it, and showed it too me.

"This is the Boulder Badge," he said showing what looked like a grey octagon. Actually, it was a grey octagon! That's what I fought for?

"Cool," I said to him.

- - -

After a few moments, we left for the next part of the journey. I wish we could just have some time off, but it doesn't matter that much. I was still sore from the fight, and had trouble standing for a minute before gaining my balance.

Jon released Ruby from her Pokeball as soon as we left the Pokemon Centre. "Hey Dusk, how are you feeling?" she asked me.

"Fine," I replied. "You beat the Onix?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Cool."

We started walking along a path at the edge of the city, Jon telling us about what was next.

"We are going to Mt. Moon next," he said, pointing at a large mountain in the distance. "Past that is Cerulean City, where we will find the next badge."

Cool, so just beyond that mountain is the badge, waiting for us to come and get it. This would be easier then getting the Boulder Badge, for that we had to travel past Pallet Town, Viridian City, Viridian Forest, and finally Pewter City, where we had to beat Brock for the badge. Actually, now that I think about it, there will most likely be a Gym Leader for Cerulean City too, and one for the rest of them.

Although, I don't know how big Mt. Moon is. It could take a long time to get through it. We might even have to stay there overnight.

I looked at the sun for the first time since I was knocked unconscious. The sun had moved a fair distance by now; it was about mid afternoon, maybe later. Before it wasn't even midday! I must have been out for about 3 hours! Although, that's not too long when you think about it.

"Hey you," a voice called to Jon.

"Yeah," Jon said, noticing a man to the side.

"Do you want a free Pokemon?" he asked. Wow, a free Pokemon, that's a great deal.

"Sure, what's the catch?" Jon responded.

"No catch," the man said seriously. "It's just not my type of Pokemon."

"Fine," Jon responded with hesitation. "I'll have him."

"Great," the man said, casually throwing a pokeball that was attached to his waist. Jon caught the ball and studied it thoughtfully.

"I'll be on my way then," he said to no one in particular.

"Thanks," Jon said gratefully.

"No problem. Oh yeah, he's a water type, so you might want to take him over to that pond there," he said before leaving.

I looked at Jon, he seemed happy that he had got another Pokemon, but he still looked a tad suspicious.

He walked over to the pond a few metres in the distance, and threw the Pokeball at it. "Go Pokemon," he shouted, before the ball exploded in white light.

A fish Pokemon appeared, red in colour.

"Hello," he said in a relatively deep voice. To be honest, it sounded comical, but I restrained myself from laughing. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dusk, this is Ruby, Gold, and Jon, our trainer," I said to him.

"Where is my trainer?" He asked.

"He, um, gave you to Jon," Gold said, probably hoping he wouldn't get too upset about it.

"Oh, okay," he said happily. Didn't he care that his trainer left him?

"Who are you," Ruby asked.

"I'm Magikarp," he said. "Who are you?" he asked.

""I'm Dusk, this is Ruby, Gold, and Jon, our trainer," I repeated. "You said that."

"Oh, did I? Silly me!" he responded, laughing.

"Okay," Jon said. "Let's see what you can do."

- - -

Jon decided to put Gold up against Magikarp. I don't think he would beat Gold, but I may be wrong.

"Go Magikarp, attack him," Jon shouted.

"Okay," Magikarp said, splashing around in the water.

"Attack him," Jon repeated after a moment of waiting.

"Hm, okay," Magikarp said happily, flopping around in the water some more.

I looked over at Gold, who had started laughing. Ruby was also trying to contain herself. What on earth was Magikarp thinking? Was he going to attack Gold while he wasn't concentrating? That would be pretty clever, actually, but I don't think he would do that.

"Um, Magikarp," Jon said to him.

"Yes?" Magikarp asked, smiling at Jon.

"Attack Gold, attack the Pikachu," he said, a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"Okay," Magikarp said happily. He was about to start splashing around, but he noticed me, and came over to where I was standing.

"Who are you?" he asked. Is he serious?

"Magikarp, return," Jon interrupted, returning him to his pokeball before I could respond to him.

By the time we had all stopped laughing, a girl came along, about the same age as Jon.

"Hey, would you like a free Pokemon?" Jon asked her.

"Yes please," she replied.

"Here," Jon said, passing Magikarp's pokeball to her.

"Gee, thank you very much!" she said, before skipping down the road.

"That was surprisingly easy," Jon said to us. "Come on guys, Mt. Moon is just ahead.

"That was awfully strange," Ruby said to Gold and I.

"I know," I responded. "Although you have to admit, that was pretty funny."

"You say that like the laughing didn't give it away," she replied.


	14. Mt Moon Part 1

**Part 1: Into the Darkness**

Once we got over the whole Magikarp deal, it was time for Mt. Moon. I had never been inside a mountain before, obviously. Actually, I've never been to place that was dark, apart from the night, of course. It was quite strange thinking about it, a dark place at night time. Oh well, I'll get used to it. I wonder how long we will though. Will we be in there a long time? We will probably be staying there overnight, but will we stay longer?

"Here we are," Jon called to us. "Mt. Moon!"

There was a single entrance to the mountain, it was quite small. I know I would be able to fit in there, but would Jon?

Jon led us into it, he had to crawl. It was quite funny actually.

As I entered, I took note of how dark it was, I couldn't see anything except for some dim lights illuminating the path.

"Okay guys, stay close to me," Jon said seriously. "It is easy to get lost." I appreciate his concern, but he is protective. What would happen? We will be fine, I'm sure of it.

It was also noticeably colder in here. Not to the point where I couldn't stand it, but there was a different feel to the air.

I looked around. We had just entered a large room. I looked around, trying to see in the dark. I saw multiple figures moving around in the dark, Pokemon or human, I couldn't be sure. It was quite scary; to be honest, but there wasn't a chance the others would find that out!

"That reminds me," Jon said to himself. He got out a long, rather thin object from his backpack. I think there was glass on the tip of it, but I couldn't be sure. He pressed a button on it, and with a click, a beam of light shot out from it.

I had heard of them before, I think they were called torches.

Jon moved the object, and wherever the torch went, the beam of light went too.

- - -

We walked in silence for a long time, only stopping occasionally for a battle.

"Jon?" a voice rang out across the darkness. Jon shone his torch across the wall, stopping when it hit the desired target. It was a boy, about Jon's age, but he had black hair instead of brown like Jon (I had always thought that human fur was just called fur, but Ruby told me it was called hair. Strange).

"Nick?" Jon asked. I instantly remembered the boy from a few days ago; right after Jon picked me to be his starter Pokemon.

"The one and only!" Nick said to him. "How have you been?"

"Great," Jon said to him. "You?"

"Yeah, I'm doing fine, I ran into your sister yesterday."

"Cool, how is she?" Jon responded. I didn't know he had a sister.

"She's doing fine," he replied simply.

"Cool," Jon said. "Now how about a rematch?" He asked.

"Sure," Nick said to him. "Still crying over me beating you last time?"

"Never did," Jon replied, grinning. "Does two each sound good?"

"Fine with me!" Nick replied. "Go Zubat," he shouted, throwing his pokeball at the ground.

If I'm correct, Zubat is a bat Pokemon.

Sure enough, out from the pokeball came a bat Pokemon, purple in colour. The defining feature for me was that he had no eyes, although I may be wrong, as it is really dark.

"Fine," Jon said. "Go Gold," he said after a moment of consideration. "Take him down".

"Sure thing boss," Gold said smugly, walking up to the area between Jon and Nick.

"I hate Zubats," Ruby said to me.

"Why?" I asked.

"There was a Zubat that lived right outside my clan, and whenever I went to get berries, he would scare me," she replied, betraying anger in her voice.

"Is he why you left?" I asked her.

"Not at all. As I got older, I got over my fear of him drinking my blood."

"Drinking your blood?" I asked. I didn't know Pokemon did that.

"That's what he said, but I eventually realized he would never do it," she said, laughing.

"Yeah, that would suck," I responded, only realizing the pun I had made after I had said it.

"Nice one," Ruby said.

I focused my attention on Gold as I realized he had just started battling the Zubat. He started by shooting electricity out of his cheeks. The Zubat dodged just in time, the attack just missing him.

The Zubat responded by flying past Gold, slashing him with his wing. I knew the attack as wing attack.

"Good one Zubat," Nick shouted. "Now get him again," he commanded rather harshly.

The Zubat quickly flew down and tried to slash Gold, but Gold was to fast, jumping up and shot a bolt of electricity at the Zubat. He collapsed to the ground, twitching in pain.

Gold hit the ground and waited for him to get up, which he did just in time for the Pikachu's Quick Attack. However, he was just too slow for Zubat, who dodged to the side.

Gold quickly pivoted to the side, and slammed into the Zubat, taking me (and I presume the Zubat) by surprise. The Zubat was pushed to the ground, and as he got up, Gold shot a bolt of electricity at him. The Zubat was fast enough this time, dodging into the air.

"Get him with Confuse Ray," Nick said calmly to his Pokemon. A concentrated ligh shot out from the Zubat, hitting Gold, but seemingly not harming him. I hadn't heard of the attack before, so I'm not sure what it does. Confuse him most likely.

Gold used his Quick Attack, rushing at a blinding speed into… a rock! He wasn't even close to the Zubat, missing it by a fair way off.

"What the hell?" Gold asked, instantly becoming aware of what had happened. I've got to admit, that attack was pretty cool.

"You were hit by a Confuse Ray," Ruby said to him.

"Oh," he said.

"Go Zubat, finish him off," Nick said to his Pokemon.

Gold was one step ahead though, shooting the Zubat with electricity right before he was hit. The Zubat fell to the ground, emitting some strange squealing noise.

"Return," Nick said a trace of disappointment in his voice.

"You too," Jon said to Gold, returning him to his pokeball.

"No complaining there," I heard Gold say before he was sucked into it.

"Go Dusk," Jon said to me.

"Fine," Nick said. "Go Shade!"

The familiar white light of a pokeball opening shone through the cave, and the Eevee I knew as Shade appeared.

"Look who we have here," Shade said, seeming a bit surprised to see me. "Didn't think I would see you here!" He said to me.

"Neither did I," I said to him.

I started the match by tackling him, which he was able to dodge. He proceeded to tackle me to the ground. I responded to that by biting his leg.

He cried out in pain from my attack, ripping his leg out of my grasp. I noticed his leg was bleeding slightly from my attack.

Shade responded quickly, shoving dirt in my eyes. Damn it, now I can't see properly. Unfortunately, I could still feel properly, ash he slammed into me head on as I rubbed the dirt out of my eyes.

I fell to the ground in pain, my body hitting the hard floor.

"Damn it," I said, getting up off the ground.

I was about to attack him, but the pain from me hitting the ground flared up again, making me unable to attack for a moment. Finally I recovered from the attack, Shade just waiting patiently. I'm glad he didn't attack me, because that would have hurt, a lot.

Shade ran forward, but I dodged, focusing on Quick Attack and hitting his side. He was pushed to the ground and I made sure not to go close to him, otherwise he might bite my leg, like I bit his.

Shade got up again slowly, breathing heavily. He took an offensive stance and tackled me. At least, I though he would tackle me, but instead he used his own Quick Attack, which sent me flying into a wall. Pain shot through me as I slid to the ground. Damn it.

"Dusk return," Jon said, before returning me to the pokeball. I had lost but I got to rest now, which was good. I stayed in the simulated enclosure for a few moments before being released again.

Nick had gone, and Gold had just been released too.

"How did we go?" he asked.

"I lost," I said, blushing slightly.

"Don't worry Dusk, you did fine," Jon said to me after noticing the sad tone in my voice. "Now let's set up camp for the night, it's getting late.

Moments later, the camp was set up. To be honest, Jon and Gold did most of the work, Ruby and I are quadruples.

"Goodnight everyone," Jon said to us,

"Goodnight," we all said in succession.


	15. Mt Moon Part 2

**Part 2: Lost**

Damn, where am I. I got to my feet and looked around, complete darkness. But my eyes were open, so what was happening. I noticed to the side a light, but what was happening. I instantly remembered that we were in Mt. Moon.

As I regained my focus I recognized the figures of Gold, Ruby, and Jon lying on the ground.

Phew, I got worried over nothing. But I can't tell what time of night it is. The must be some gap in the walls leading to outside, unless I'm too far into the mountain to tell. I looked around, searching for light that wasn't artificial, but couldn't find any. Suddenly, a noise caught my ears. It was a familiar noise, of water constantly crashing into the body of the same water. It was a waterfall!

At that I realized how thirsty I was. Maybe I should go get some water? Nah, I probably shouldn't, what if someone wakes up and find's that I'm gone? I probably shouldn't. But I'm so thirsty!

I could wake one of them up, and tell them what I'm doing. No, Gold would want to come with me, Ruby wouldn't let me, and Jon wouldn't understand. But it would only take a few minutes. And they most likely wouldn't wake up. No, I have to listen to Jon. But it'll only take a minute…

Despite the voice in the back of my head, I started running in the direction of the water. Unfortunately for me, I ran into multiple walls as I tried to get there.

Navigating the dark was quite hard. I ran for what seemed like ages (although, it was probably minutes), trying to find my way around.

I turned a corner, and to my surprise, a small waterfall splashing harmlessly into a river below it greeted me. Artificial lights shone dimly across the cavern, the light rebounding off the water. Okay, now I was really thirsty! I ran down and jumped into the water, drinking as much as I could. I don't normally drink this much, but I've had a bit less water since travelling with Jon, and that we have been walking a lot.

After a moment of lapping up them gorgeous liquid, I decided to let my fur dry.

After a moment of relaxing, I decided to make my way back to my trainer. I decided not to groom though. It would take too long, and it should go down mostly by morning anyway.

I started walking back towards our camp. Wait, which way was it? For a moment, I was scared, by I soon regained by train of thought. "This way," I said nervously, sure that this was the right one. Around this one, then this one, and…wrong way. Damn it. After about half an hour of trying, I gave up.

Fear struck me as I realized the truth, I was lost! This couldn't be happening, oh why was this happening?

"Oh crap," I said. Suddenly, I realized that I had said a bad word and apologized. I instantly remembered that I was alone, so no body could tell me not to do it.

"Crap," I said louder the normal. I probably shouldn't be doing this, but nobody's going to find out.

"Shit," I said, giggling a bit.

"F…"

"Didn't you're parents ever teach you not to say those words," a voice rang out from nowhere, catching me by surprise. "You actually thought you could get away with that?" It said firmly, but without any anger behind its words.

"S-sorry," I said to the voice, blushing slightly. But where did that voice come from?

My question was answered as out from the darkness came a Pokemon resembling a cat. It had large eyes, black ears, and an odd shaped gold coin on its head, and from what I can tell, it was cream in colour.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am a Meowth," the being said, its voice confirming to me it was male.

"No, but what's your name?" I asked again.

"Oh, ha-ha," he laughed. "You may call me…" he paused for dramatic effect, "…Mercury. Who may you be?"

"Me? I'm Dusk," I said, smiling. Maybe I should ask him for help. "Can you help me?" I asked.

"Probably," he replied.

"You see, I'm trainer owned, and I went out to get a drink of water from a nearby waterfall, but I can't find my way back," I admitted, blushing.

"Human owned? Well that would explain the lack of navigation skills!" he said jokingly. "But I may be able to help you," he said thoughtfully. "You ever head of the Dance of the Clefairy?" He asked. I don't think I knew what that was.

"No, sorry," I admitted.

"Doesn't matter," he said kindly. Once every month, the Pokemon known as Clefairy hold a ritual, where all of the Clefairy that have come of age, are to dance around a large stone known as the Moon Stone," he explained. "This rock emits energy when the moon is full, which the evolution hormones inside a Clefairy react to. This causes the Clefairy to evolve into Clefable!"

"That's pretty cool," I said. "But what does that have to do with me finding my way back?" I asked.

"Well, the Clefairy know this mountain like the back of their paw, so they should know the way to your trainer," he explained.

"I guess," I muttered.

"Do you want me to show you the way there?" he asked.

"Yes please," I said.

"It's not to far from here," he said.

The Meowth led me trough multiple pathways, before stopping abruptly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There are some dangerous Pokemon up ahead, can you fight?" He asked.

"I guess, I'm not to sure," I replied.

"Maybe we should test your ability's. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," he said reassuringly.

"It couldn't hurt," I said to him. Although, I probably won't be at my strongest, it is night time after all. I noticed for the fist time how tired I was, but the water from earlier dimmed a bit.

"Okay," Mercury said to me, taking an offensive pose. At least, I think it was an offensive pose; it was a bit hard to see then normal. The people in charge of the lighting must have darkened it.

He started the battle by feinting a lunge. I jumped to the side, for a moment I expected to be attacked and jumped to the side. I ran forward, and watched as he prepared to avoid my attack, but before he could jump, I changed my attack to a Quick Attack and slammed into him.

The feline was thrown to the ground, and as he got up, a small growl escaped his throat.

"Nice one," he said calmly. "But I can do better!"

He leaped forward, and before I had time to respond, he slammed his fist into my face. It hurt, but I was still able to fight. I was about to counterattack, but he was too fast and jumped above me, doing a flip before landing behind me. I turned around to face him and noticed for a moment that his claws were shinier then normal. I only had a moment to ponder that, as said claws struck me across the face. He then struck me a second and a third time.

He proceeded to slash me one more time against my chin in an uppercut motion, knocking me to the floor.

I was about to get up and continue battling him, but before I could, the cold air got to it and it started stinging.

I growled in annoyance, but it came out as a choke. I decided to get up slowly and restrain from attacking him for no reason in particular. I guess it was so he might be merciful. I was right, as he offered his paw as I got up.

"Don't worry, it's natural for the mid to give into pain," he said to me. Damn, he realized what I had done!

"There is an old saying," Mercury said to me. "Push through the pain; you've probably heard it before."

"No I haven't," I admitted.

"Oh," he said surprised. "Well, either way, I haven't met a person that hasn't benefited from that saying. It means that even when you're in pain, you need to keep fighting. Believe me; you won't win many battles without the right amount of determination to keep going."

"Cool," I said. I had been noticing lately that I was having trouble fighting because of the pain I was sometimes in. "Thanks," I said to him.

"You're welcome," he said gratefully. "But it's interesting that you haven't heard of it before, it's almost as well known as the Shadow Prophesy!"

"The Shadow Prophesy?" I asked.

"Oh, I guess it isn't as well known, but it's still pretty famous," he said thoughtfully.

"What is it?" I asked.

"_While body turns from day to night;_

_His mind will no longer be shallow._

_His spirit shall revert from dark to light,_

_And he shall rise From the Shadows."_

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"It is a story of reincarnation, whether you believe in that or not," he explained. "It means that once a great evil is dead, that he shall be reborn."

"Who is it?" I asked. I had never heard of this tale before.

"Nobody knows for sure. People speculate that it was a great hunter from centuries ago. He sought out to kill a Nidoking who had murdered his family. But while trying, became evil and killed as many as the Nidoking did. They also speculate that it was said Nidoking, because they both died during their fight. He killed the hunter and then did from blood loss. People also think that it was Giovanni, the leader of the criminal organization Team Rocket who died a few weeks ago. I don't care that much myself.

"That's interesting," I said to him.

"Yeah, I know right?" he asked. "Anyway, we should find the Clefairy's home soon," he admitted.

I hope we get to them soon, because I'm getting pretty tired.

I just hope they can help me find my group.


	16. Mt Moon Part 3

**Part 3: Finding the Way Back**

Moments went as we walked in silence, walking through the darkness towards the Clefairy clan. I just hope they can help me find the others. I hope they want to for that matter, because tonight was some big evolution ritual for them or something like that. I really hope they haven't woken up yet! Oh man, I should have never gone to get that water!

But that was in the past, I have to forget about it. All that matters is that I did do it and now I have to get out of this mess.

"Hey Dusk," Mercury said to me, calling my attention to him. "We are about to exit the mountain for a minute and onto a narrow path, at the end of it is another entrance to Mt. Moon."

"Okay," I replied.

Sure enough, he was right, as moments later, we exited the mountain and I was greeted by a magnificent light as I stepped into the cold air. After adjusting to the light, I realized that I was standing in front of a full moon. I had always thought of the full moon as the most beautiful part of nature, but it takes a long time to fully appreciate it. The thin clouds partially covered the moon every so often, darkening the light slightly before passing by, leaving the moon in its full glory again.

I looked to my right, following the path along. He was right, it is narrow, but I could still fit across it easily. A large Pokemon or human would have great difficulties crossing it though. Across the path were vines and other exotic plants, making it harder to walk across.

I looked down and was surprised at how far up we were. Falling down would majorly hurt you, or worse! But I was surprised at how far we had travelled. Looking down, I could make out the entrance and what I think was the pond where we met that Magikarp. I giggled slightly at the thought of his stupidity.

"What's funny?" The Meowth asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing!" I said to him, relaying the events from yesterday in my mind.

"Okay," he replied, not convinced of it being nothing. "We should probably keep going soon; we don't want to miss the event!" he said to me

I looked at the position of the moon; it was a bit past midnight. At that, I reminded myself of how tired I was. I yawned loudly.

We walked along the path until we came to another opening at the end of it.

"Here we go," Mercury said to himself as we entered the cave.

- - -

We walked for what seemed like hours, I was beginning to wonder if we will ever make it. But then I thought back to what my parents said, before they were picked by trainers: _Time is a weird thing. Hours feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours. _I can't remember if it was my mum or dad who said it to me, but it's one of those sayings that gets stuck in you're head.

"We're here," the Meowth said to me quietly.

"Awesome," I said, matching his quiet tone. "Why do we have to be quiet?"

"We don't want to disturb the ritual. If we did, they would never forgive us," he explained.

"Oh, okay," I replied as we turned a corner.

I was greeted with a great light, multiple silhouetted figures dancing around it. The source of the light became apparent to me as I looked up and saw a hole on the ceiling, the full moon's light shining through it and reflecting off of the stone.

The Clefairy were chanting strange words that I couldn't understand. That or I was too far away from them, it would probably be the second one. "Should we go closer?" I asked Mercury.

"Nah," he said to me, watching the Clefairy with great interest. "We wait to they finish, then we go find one of them," he said.

"Sure," I said quietly.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long, as the dance finished just moments later. After a few moments Mercury spoke to me. "Let's go," the feline said. We walked through the centre of the clearing, gathering some weird looks from a few of the Clefairy. Instantly, a creature that looked like a tall Clefairy came up to us. I recognized it as a Clefable, the evolved form of a Clefairy.

"Who are you?" she demanded harshly.

"My name is Mercury, and this is Dusk," he said, pointing at me. "We are looking for a trainer and his Pokemon."

"And why do you need us?" the creature asked, slightly amused by the comment.

"Is it not true that the Clefairy and Clefable know this mountain well?" the Meowth countered.

"Fair enough, but what would you offer us in return?"

"I have nothing to offer you. I have heard that the Clefairy clan is very considerate, and I thought you would help us. However, you are not living up to your current reputation, so I guess your group is not as helpful as they say, and as I originally thought," Mercury said dismissively.

The Clefable seemed impressed by his statement. "I'll see what I can do," she replied, "follow me."

As we walked through the clearing, I took note of the bushes and vines growing out of the walls, similar to how they were on that path outside. They were strange plants, ones that I had never seen before. But then again, I haven't seen many plants outside my old clearing.

"Leader," our guide said, calling the attention of a Clefairy off in the distance. I'm guessing those two weren't the best of friends, judging by the bitter tone in the Clefable's voice

"Yes?" he asked. "Who are these?"

"That's the thing. These Pokemon are looking for someone, a human," she explained.

"Why?" he asked. Did I really have to tell them I was lost?

"Because…why?" she asked.

"Dusk here is lost," Mercury said. My face grew warm, but I don't think anyone noticed me blushing.

"I'll see what I can do," he said thoughtfully. "Where did you get lost?"

I thought for a moment. "At a waterfall," I said hopefully.

"Which one?" he asked. I didn't know that there were more then one here.

"It was past the outside path," Mercury interrupted.

"Oh, I know now. It's not too far from here," he said to my relief.

"Cool," I said. "Can we get going now?"

"Sure," he replied.

- - -

We walked for 23 minutes (yeah, I was that bored), before I heard a familiar noise. The waterfall!

"Looks like were almost here," Mercury pointed out. Thank you captain obvious.

Moments later, we arrived at the waterfall. I was getting worried, so it was a relief. I took a small drink from the refreshing water, reminding myself of how I got into this mess. I just hope no one has noticed I'm gone.

"I will be leaving now," the Meowth announced.

"Why?" I asked, feeling slightly disappointed.

"This is where I met you, so this is where we part," he replied vaguely. "Don't worry, I'm sure we will see each other again, we are both travelling."

"I guess," I said.

"I will see you later then," he said, holding out his paw. I shook it, slightly confused at the weird gesture, but decided not to worry about it.

"Thank you for showing us the way back," he said to the Clefairy.

"No problem, glad to help," the creature replied. They shook paws and Mercury walked into the darkness. Shame he had to leave, but I'm sure we will see each other again.

"Dusk? Is that you?" the voice of Ruby asked through the darkness.

"Ruby?" I asked.

Through the shadows came a figure rushing towards me, then skidding to a stop instantly.

"I thought you were gone for good!" she said, panting for breath. "Where were you?" she asked loudly.

"I went to get a drink, but I got lost," I admitted.

"Well be more carful next time!" she practically yelled.

"Do the others know about this?" I asked.

"No, but I was about to wake them when I woke up to find you gone!"

"Okay, okay," I said, "let's go back."

"Good," she said, before walking off into the distance, completely ignoring my guide.

"Thank you for you're help," I said to him.

"No problem, glad I could help," he replied, putting a slight emphasis on 'could'. Without a word, he walked off into the distance.

I quickly followed Ruby before she noticed I had stopped, and before I knew it, we were back at camp. It was a great relief to see Jon and Gold again, even if they were asleep. I stretched out onto an unoccupied corner of Jon sleeping back and almost instantly fell asleep.

"I'm glad you're back," was the last thing I heard.


	17. Mt Moon Part 4

**Part 4: Relaxation**

I was awoken by a sharp pain to my side.

"Stop it," I muttered, half asleep.

"But it's fun!" a familiar voice complained.

"Whatever," I said. "So why were you poking me..." I opened my eyes to make sure I knew who I was talking to, "...Gold?"

"We're about to go," he replied. Damn it, I was up for half the night, I didn't want to go travelling. Oh man, I was hoping I wouldn't remember last night.

I got to my feet, still in a daze, looking around curiously. Jon was packing his sleeping bag into his regular bag, and Ruby was drinking from a small bowl. I hope she doesn't tell the others that I left the group. I better check to be sure.

"Hey Ruby," I said quietly, walking casually over to her.

"Yeah Dusk?" she asked curiously.

"Are you going to tell the others about...you know...last night?" I asked, hoping that she wouldn't tell the others.

"I wouldn't do that," she replied, laughing slightly. "But you should never do that again," she said seriously, the tone of her voice reminding me a bit of when my parents told me off for doing something I shouldn't do. "I almost had a heart attack when I couldn't find you," she said, laughing again.

"I won't do it ever again," I said seriously.

"Promise?" she asked in a sarcastic voice.

"I promise!" I replied, imitating the tone of her voice.

"Everyone ready to go?" Jon asked our group. We all nodded in succession.

"Then let's go!" Jon said cheerfully.

* * *

We walked for a few minutes in silence with little talk between us. For a moment I heard the waterfall where I got lost, but the sound faded as we kept walking.

"Hey…does anyone want a few hours off?" Jon asked, breaking the silence as we entered a new room.

The question took me by surprise, as I hadn't really thought about us taking a break. I wasn't going to complain though, after what happened yesterday (or was it today?), I really need some time off.

"I know we should be practicing for the Pokemon League, but I think we could all do with a break!" he finished. There was no arguing with that logic. I nodded my head at Jon.

"Then we will stay a few hours," he announced excitedly. "But we should only stay for the hours, we really need to keep moving," he said. I wish I knew how much time an hour was, and then I could tell how long we should be staying. I would imagine that an hour wouldn't be too short a time though.

I yawned loudly, catching the attention of Ruby. "You're really tired, maybe you should sleep for a bit," she said.

"Nah, I hate sleeping in the day," I said honestly.

"Eh, okay. But I still think you should," she said.

"Maybe," I replied.

I sat down on the ground and watched Ruby and Gold fight for a bit. The fight seemed pretty even with an equal number of blows being dealt on either side. After a few minutes though, Gold defeated Ruby by knocking her to the ground with a Quick Attack.

After a minute of resting, Gold came over to me. "Wanna fight?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied after a second of consideration. We walked to the centre of the small clearing and took our positions. After a second of staring each other down, Gold took the first move. He shot a bolt of lightning from his cheeks, which I was able to dodge, only to be tackled by him. I fell to the ground but got up quickly, bracing myself for another attack. Gold shot another bolt of lightning which I was able to dodge, and then used my own Quick Attack to slam into him. He fell to the ground in pain but quickly regained his composure. With surprising force, he slammed his tail into my side, throwing me to the ground painfully. I got up quickly just to be knocked down by a bolt of thunder again.

"Damn," I replied. Maybe I should give up, it's hurting a lot. No, I had to take Mercury's advice. Push through the pain; I had to push through the pain.

I pushed myself to my feet only to be greeted with Gold rushing towards me. I quickly focused on that energy deep within me and bolted forwards towards him. He had anticipated the attack however, and dodged to the side, then tackling me. I retaliated by biting his tail, causing him to yell out in pain. That gave me enough time to get back up as he grabbed his tail and made a small whimpering sound.

"Please, not the tail," he said with a slightly sarcastic voice.

"Okay", I said smugly and ran into his chest, knocking him to the ground.

"Okay, I should have seen that coming!" he joked, getting up.

As soon as ge got up, he was off. With great speed, he slammed into me, pushing me to the floor. I was up in a minute, but before I was able to attack, he shot a bolt of lightning at me. I was able to just dodge it though. He seemed surprised by how quick I was, which gave me an advantage. I used my own Quick Attack and slammed into his side, throwing him to the ground.

"Okay, you win!" he said irritably. "But you won't win next time. This one was just a fluke!" he said, laughing.

"Of course," I said, rolling my eyes sarcastically. I noticed that the battle had made me weary, which was complimented by the fact that I was already tired. Ruby apparently noticed that I was really tired too.

"I think you should get some rest," she said thoughtfully.

"I know, I just don't like going to sleep in the middle of the day," I complained.

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't know, I just feel like I miss a lot of stuff when I'm asleep," I complained, noting her 'so what' face. "... Oh, all right," I grumbled. "Just don't let Gold poke me while I'm asleep," I added. I sat down in a corner near Jon, who was reading a book of some kind. On the cover were two Dragonair, a Charmander, and a Pichu. Two yellow eyes glowed maliciously in the background of the image. Up the top was large human letters that I couldn't understand, and I imagine similar letters filled the book, most books are like that.

I closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep. I hope I don't get to sleep, but if I do, I won't complain too much. Last night was pretty hectic. I do wonder if I will ever meet Mercury again though. He is travelling, like me and Jon are, so it might happen, but who knows. I would rather see Dawn again though; I hope she is doing well. I wonder what the other Pokemon travelling with Dawn and her trainer are like, I hope they are nice.

* * *

…No, I wasn't asleep!

I looked around in confusion, where was I? Oh right, we were resting. Maybe I was asleep. If so, damn it! I hate falling asleep!

"Oh, hey, you're awake!" Ruby noted, coming over to me. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," I said. "Did I really fall asleep?" I asked.

"Yep," she replied.

"Man, I hate falling asleep, I repeated. "Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it now. How long was I asleep for?"

"Not too long," she replied vaguely. "I think we will be going soon though, I think Jon is packing up."

A thought entered my head. "Ruby, quick, what was your name?"

"What? Oh, it was..."

"Time to go guys," Jon said.

Ruby opened her mouth to speak again.

"Everyone ready?" Jon asked. We looked at each other for a moment before nodding at Jon. "I swear he's doing that on purpose," Ruby muttered under her breath.

We walked for only minutes before Jon gasped in surprise. "Sis?" he said. His sister? I didn't know he had a sister. No, that was right, that trainer, Nick I think was his name, mentioned Jon having a sister!

"Jon," a voice called from the darkness.

"It is you!" Jon said, hugging his sister as she came into the light. She had long brown hair, and eyes of the same colour. You could see she was related to Jon.

"It is so good to see you!" Jon shouted.

"I know, right?" she said before noticing me, Ruby, and Gold. "Are these you're Pokemon?" she asked. Jon nodded. She gasped. "They are so cute!" she said in a high pitched voice.

"Hey every one," Jon said to us excitedly. "This is my sister," he announced. "Her name is Robyn!"

Hmm, she seems nice enough.


	18. Mt Moon Part 5

**Part 5: Reunion**

So, Jon had a sister! I never had a sister, or any siblings for that matter. All I had was my parents, and after they left, I had no family at all. Although, I did have Dawn, so I guess that counts. Wait, what if Robyn is Dawn's trainer? No, I had to be realistic, there's almost no chance of that happening.

"This is amazing," Jon proclaimed. "What's the chance of seeing you here?" he asked rhetorically.

"OMG, I don't know," Robyn replied using a strange word I didn't recognize. "BTW, you have some totally cute Pokemon," she mentioned, getting distracted by us again, all the while using those strange made up words.

"I guess," Jon said. "What about you're Pokemon?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about them!" she said. She got out multiple pokeballs from her waist and threw them at the ground. The balls burst open and in their place stood multiple Pokemon. The first was a Pidgey that seemed slightly familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen him. Second was a female Pikachu, reminding me a bit of Gold. The Pikachu winked at him, causing him to blush (although his cheeks were already red, so it was a bit hard to tell.) Last was a large butterfly Pokemon, I think it was called a Butterfree. At this point, I wasn't sure if it was male or female yet.

"Cool," Jon said. "That it?"

"Yep," she replied. "I have my starter Pokemon here too, but she's still tired from our last battle. Should I?"

"Doesn't bother me," Jon said.

"Okay, I won't," Robyn responded. I wonder who her starter was. "No," Robyn said suddenly. "I will."

She threw the pokeball into the air, and it exploded in a flash of light. Guess I'll find out after all.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized who had come out of that pokeball. I would never forget looking into the face of that ever so familiar Eevee. Her eyes widened as she noticed me.

"D-Dusk?" she asked in disbelief.

"Dawn..." I muttered to myself before rushing towards her at full force. She had the same idea, and started running towards me. We both skidded to a halt before crashing into each other.

"Wha-? When did you-?" she asked, her words muffled.

"T-This is my trainer. Y-You were picked by a trainer too!" I almost shouted, now fully knowing that she had been picked by a trainer.

"Y-Yeah. Oh my goodness, I'm so glad to see you again!" she squealed, hugging me. I felt slightly embarrassed by this, what with all my friends here, but I didn't care. This was my best friend, who I hadn't seen since this big adventure started.

Finally she let go of me. "This is...amazing! I thought we would never meet up!" she said excitedly.

"I think they know each other," I heard Jon whisper to Robyn. Well duh!

"Dusk, this is Emblem," Dawn said, pointing to the Pikachu, "this is Aether," she pointed to the Pidgey, and this is Butterfree," she pointed to the Butterfree.

"This is Ruby and Gold," I pointed to the Nidoran and Pikachu.

"So what does everyone want to do?" Robyn asked.

* * *

Dawn and I sat down in a corner, while Gold and Emblem fought, and Ruby, Aether, and the Butterfree talked. Jon and Robyn also started talking for a bit.

"Well, what have you been doing all this time?" Dawn asked.

"Just travelling," I said.

"Come on, tell me the whole thing," she complained.

"Fine then," I said. "After I got picked by my trainer, we said goodbye to his annoying mum," I said.

"Same!" she added.

"Right. Then we left and went across a large open field. Nothing much happened though. We got to Viridian City and did a few things around there," I explained, Dawn nodding as I spoke. "Then we met Ruby, and Jon caught her. Then we went into this really deep forest, I don't remember the name of it though. We met Gold there too. After that we went to Pewter City and challenged the Gym there. We won of course."

"Cool. What type of Pokemon did the Gym Leader use?" Dawn asked.

"He used Rock Type Pokemon," I replied. "Anyway, after that we went into this mountain, and well, here we are," I finished.

"That's pretty cool," Dawn noted.

"What have you been doing all this time?" I asked her.

"Well, we left Pallet Town and captured Aether. He really didn't want to leave his home when we caught him, and he tried to escape multiple times, but we stopped him!" she said, laughing slightly. "He's adjusted to it now though. Anyway, after Aether, we went to Viridian City, and Robyn spent at least 3 hours shopping. And she got so carried away she forgot that she wanted to get to the forest by sundown. Unfortunately, during the rush, she took a wrong turn. We ended up in Cerulean City though, so it wasn't that big of a deal. We caught Emblem about that time, and challenged the Gym Leader too! We won the badge from her."

"What type of Pokemon did she use?" I asked.

"Should I tell you?" she asked.

"Do," I urged.

"Nah, I won't," she said mischievously.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes humorously.

"Anyway, after that we caught Butterfree, and then we met you at Mt. Moon, but you already knew that!" she said. "You're adventure does seem better then mine," she noted.

"I think their about equal," I said.

"Hey guys," Robyn said, coming over to us and leaning down. "Do you guys, like, wanna fight or something?" she asked.

"Do you want to?" I asked her.

"Nah, I better not. I'm still recovering from the last battle," she said, showing a small cut on her leg to Robyn.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that, lol," Robyn said. "I probably shouldn't let you fight after that," she noted, before leaving us alone.

"Does she always speak like that?" I asked.

"Pretty much!" she replied.

"Right. Hey, I didn't notice that cut on your leg before," I noted.

"It's nothing," she said. "The previous Pokemon we fought knew Cut!"

"...Okay," I said, still not fully convinced.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just don't fully believe you," I said.

"Well what else could have happened?" she asked.

"I...don't know," I admitted.

* * *

About an hour went by, with Dawn and I just talking. Finally Jon and Robyn finished their conversation.

"Well guy, I think its like, time to leave," Robyn proclaimed.

No, not yet.

"Damn," Dawn said sadly, although she seemed like she was accepting the thought of leaving.

"Guess this is it then," she said, laughing slightly.

"I guess," I said, sighing. "Shame we have to leave so soon," I noted.

"I know," she said. "But this must have been at least an hour."

"Really?" I asked.

"Probably," she said. Wow, an hour already? That went quickly.

But I didn't want to leave yet. Dawn was the closest thing I had to a family, and I didn't want to leave her yet.

"Well, see you then," she muttered, nuzzling me slightly before joining her group.

"Bye," I said. It was a shame to see her leave so soon; it seemed like just a minute ago we had just seen each other again. Oh well, if we had seen each other so soon after we left the enclosure, we would be sure to see each other again. That was what, 4 or 5 days ago?

Robyn and her Pokemon all walked off into the distance, and Dawn waved goodbye before catching up to the rest of her group.

"Well, that was nice to catch up with those guys again," Jon mentioned.

I really hope we meet again soon. I'm sure we will, it's just that after waiting for days to see her and finally getting the chance to, I want to see her again more then ever.

* * *

A few minutes passed before anyone spoke up.

"Hey guys," Jon said, breaking the silence. "I-I think we're here!" he said as we turned a corner.

We're here? What did that mean? Did it mean we were out of Mt. Moon?

As I turned around a corner, I was greeted by a large light. Not an artificial light though, fortunately (I was getting sick of seeing those), it was a natural light. A large hole had been made through the wall, resembling a door.

I exited the door into the sunlight and fresh air of the outside world.


	19. Sunlight, Glorious Sunlight!

Wow, that light is bright!

I shielded my eyes from the intense light, and I'm guessing the others did the same. After a minute though, I moved my paw away from my face and started to adjust to the light. I just stood there as the cool breeze blew softly against my fur. I never really appreciated small things like this, but now I'm extremely grateful. Its funny how many things you take for granted.

By now I had fully adjusted to the light, and looked around at the serene surroundings. It was one large green meadow as far as I could see. There was a lake next to us, which Jon was using to fill up those water container things that he keeps with him all the time, and both Ruby and Gold were drinking from it, but I wasn't that thirsty. I was busy enjoying the surroundings.

"Guessing you and that other Eevee from before knew each," Jon said, walking over to me. I nodded my head in reply. "I wonder what would have happened if I had picked her," he said to himself thoughtfully. He had a good point, it would have been strange if Dawn had been picked by Jon and I had been picked by Robyn. I wonder if we still would have met up in the mountain. Thinking about it, I'm starting to miss her more and more again! Strange...

"Anyway, everybody ready to keep going?" Jon asked. We all nodded our heads. "Cool, then let's go!" he said enthusiastically. I'm not sure if Jon does it on purpose, but he seems to be treating us all like we were all young kits. Ruby and Gold weren't, and I guess I'm not anymore either. Maybe it's just the fact that he can't understand us? Who knows?

We had started walking by now, and I was surprised at the heat of the sun. I was getting a bit thirsty, but it's not important. Jon has those water containers anyway.

I wonder what the next gym specializes in. Dawn had kept it a secret for whatever stupid reason she had. Ha, I need to make sure not to tell her what my previous gym's type was next time we cross paths. That is, considering we DO cross paths again. No, I shouldn't think like that. I'm sure we will meet up again.

"Great day, isn't it?" Ruby asked me.

"Yeah, it is" I replied.

"What was your enclosure like, anyway?" she asked curiously.

"Pretty boring, I guess," I replied semi-vaguely. "All you really had to do was just talk to other Pokemon. Tell me more about your clan," I said. For some reason she blushed slightly.

"So, what was so wrong with it?" I asked. "What caused you to leave?"

"I was bored with it, I guess," she replied. "There was nothing to do, and the hellish mating season had started, so that was another incentive to leave."

For some reason, the words 'mating season' got Gold's attention, which until now had just been walking silently.

"What about a mating season?" he asked excitedly. Ruby hid a slight grin at this.

"Figure's," she said. Wait, what's going on?

"I still don't know what mating is," I said. For some reason, this really shocked Gold.

"I-I knew you were young, Dusk, but this...," he seemed at a loss for words.

"What?" I asked. I knew that being mates was kind of like being a life partner, but I wasn't sure what 'mating' was.

"You mean he's never had 'the talk'?" Gold whispered to Ruby, doing this weird thing with his paws as he talked.

Ruby shrugged. I'm guessing I'm going to get one of those 'cruel facts of life' speeches. I haven't had one of those since my parents explained what death was.

"Allow me," Gold said, grinning.

* * *

Eww, gross.

"And that's how kits are born," he explained proudly, after a ten minute, in-depth explanation.

"Wait, that's how kits are born?" I asked.

"Yep, pretty crazy, isn't it," Gold said, laughing.

"T-That's gross," I exclaimed.

"You say that now," Gold said, still laughing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I retorted.

"You'll find out later," he said vaguely, walking over to talk to Ruby, who decided not to join in on the conversation, with good reason too.

But, that's just...no. I always knew that Pokemon came from eggs, but I never really thought as to where the eggs came from. It's just...wrong! No point thinking about that though, I had more important things to worry about then...that.

Actually, I was getting quite thirsty.

"Water, please!" I said to Jon.

"What's that buddy?" he asked. Of course, he can't understand me. I stuck out my tongue to tell him that I was thirsty. "Oh, are you thirsty?" he asked, taking off his bag and searching through it until he came across a water container thing. "Hmm, not that much left," he noted, "make sure you only have a small amount then, Dusk".

He gave me the bottle, and using my front paws, I drank some from it. Ah, fresh water! To be honest, it was quite warm, which was to be expected after an hour or so of walking. It was still somewhat refreshing though. Jon took the bottle back from me, noting the amount of water left in the bottle.

"I guess this'll have to do until we get to Cerulean City," Jon said to himself. Whoops, I may have drunk a bit more then I was supposed to. Never mind, we must be close to the city by now...

I wonder if when my parents got picked by trainers a year or so ago they went past this area. They probably would have passed it, since this is right next to the mountain, which is a major landmark in Kanto. I wonder what would happen if I were to meet them again. After a year, I had fully adjusted to them not around, so I imagine it would be quite a change of pace to see them again. I wouldn't mind too much though, I would love to see them again. If I were to see them again, I would love to challenge either of them to a battle. Let's just hope that one day I will see them!

Damn, I was still thirsty. I really needed a drink, but Jon would never let me have another one. I think I had a bit too much before. At first, when we got out of the caves I was excited to be in the fresh air, but this is too much. I'm sure that we'll be in the next city before to long though; we had been walking for an hour or two. Of course, this walk may take longer then the other ones we had done before, like to and from Viridian and Pewter City. Let's just pray to Mew that we're close.

"Pretty hot, isn't it?" Gold said, who had just walked over to me after his conversation with Ruby.

"Yeah, it's extremely hot!" I noted. Damn, I hope he doesn't start talking about THAT again; the previous ten minutes were awkward enough.

"Still great to be able to run around without having to worry about hitting your head," he said, laughing.

"Yeah. I hope when we get to the city there will be plenty of water," I said hopefully.

"Yeah, I hope so," he replied. "I think the next city has a...fire type gym though," he said, thinking.

"Damn, I hope not," I said. "If so, there won't be any water at all!"

"I think there will still be enough water despite the gym type!" he said. I guess he's right; water is necessary for survival after all. "At least, I think it's a fire type gym," the Pikachu said to himself.

"Hey, look guys," Jon said suddenly, pointing towards the horizon. "I see the city," he said. Where? I couldn't see anything except for grass.

Jon pulled out a map from his bag and examined it. "Let's see here..." he said to himself. "Cerulean City, home of the...water type gym," he said happily. Yes, a water type gym!

I looked at Gold. "What?" he asked. "I actually thought it was a fire type gym, promise."

"Whatever!" I said. I looked ahead of us, seeing the silhouettes of a few buildings. Yes, it was the city!

But I'm still thirsty.


	20. Mysterious Conversation

**Another POV change, but this time, for the sake of the story, I won't be revealing who's POV it is.**

I rested against the warm stone wall behind me, staring up into the sky. I was standing on a small cliff next a mountain, watching the clouds, as white as snow, drift past the sun, which hung almost in suspended animation across the land as I embraced its warmth. Across the fields and forests below me was a city, although it was just visible on the horizon. If I am correct, which I most definitely am, that would be Saffron City, the largest city in Kanto. It has been quite a while since I've been there; well, at least in this body.

Without warning, a strange tugging sensation entered my conscience, as if somebody were trying to access my mind. I just let them; I have no doubt about whom it would be.

"So, how is it going?" a deep voice asked. While there was no actual noise, I was fully aware of what was being said to me.

"Everything is going smoothly, boss," I replied to him.

"How is the Eevee? Have you come into contact with him yet?" the voice asked.

"No, I haven't." I replied. "I have, however, observed him from a distance."

"So?"

"He is harmless," I said. "He is young and naive, so I may be able to make him believe that our...'rivals' killed his parents, which would obviously make him want to join the organization."

"Very good," he praised. "You may very well be my greatest employee," he said.

"Let me remind you that I am not your employee," I said firmly. "I am only helping you for the Pokemon I need."

"And yet you refer to me as your boss," he said.

"What else am I supposed to call you?" I asked. "You appear to not tell anybody your actual name!"

"Does it really matter?"

"You're the one that brought it up," I reminded him.

"Whatever, what's important is your next mission," he said.

"So, do I get to kill somebody this time, or do I just have to observe them again?" I asked.

"Don't worry, their definitely deserving of death," my boss said firmly.

"So who is it this time?" I asked.

"A male Granbull named Grand," he said to me. "He is the leader of that group trying to put an end to us, and he has expressed his hate towards us in multiple confrontations."

"Oh, that douchebag? Why does he have to be killed?" I asked.

"His group is growing fast. If it continues at this rate, they may be strong enough to defeat us and put an end to the organization."

"I doubt that very much," I said truthfully. From what I have seen, they are quite weak, and we have multiple trained killers, so it shouldn't be too hard to put an end to them.

"I doubt it too," he said seriously. "Still, we have to be careful, because they have recruited some powerful Pokemon from multiple regions," he told me. "Think you can handle him?"

"It should be no problem," I said. I had not battled him before, but I have seen him fight, and I should most likely be able to handle him. "So, location?"

"If I am correct, he should be around the east side of Celadon City," he said.

"Well, that should be easy enough," I said to myself.

"Make sure you get all the information from him you can first," he said.

"Of course," I replied. "What about the body?"

"Feel free to just leave it there," he said.

"So, will I have access to the database after?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I see no reason why not," he said. "But of course, you need to tell me why you need it. And no, 'personal reasons' aren't good enough."

"Whatever, I'll tell you later," I said vaguely. I doubt I'll tell him, I would rather nobody knows about my mission. I doubt even he would be able keep what I am doing a secret.

"Fine," he said.

"So, anything else?" I asked.

"Nope, that's about it," he said. "I'll leave you to it," the Kadabra said, and with that, the slight tugging sensation went.

Well, this should be easy enough. It surprises me that Grand has to die though. His organization is rather small, and they seem quite harmless. Still, I have to do what the Kadabra says, or else I may not be able to gain access to his database, which of course wouldn't be the smartest move. Currently, the lack of knowledge about the Pokemon is the only thing keeping me from my real mission. And on the subject of my real mission...

I lifted my paw to my head, resting my claws on my skull, focusing on finding the energy that my master had put there. After finding the psychic energy, I focused on controlling it, and sending a message to my master.

"Yes?" a deep, malicious voice echoed.

"Master, it is me," I said with respect.

"Good," he said. With those words, a burst of fire erupted somewhat close to me, and within the inferno, a silhouette formed, taking the form of my master, his magnificence becoming clearer as the fire dimmed. I bowed before the demon as his ghostly image materialized before me.

"Welcome, master," I said, slightly surprised that he was strong enough to have fully materialized. I bowed in front of him.

"You seem to be doing an adequate job with your task," he noted. "I am glad to finally be back in this...dimension."

"How powerful are you at this stage?" I asked, standing up.

"I can see, hear, and can have at least have a physical presence in the world, but that is just it," he said. "I am curious as to why it has taken this long, and only two of the Keepers are dead. Do you have an explanation?" He asked.

"M-Master," I stammered, "T-this is an e-extremely difficult t-task," I managed to say, becoming aware of how hot it has become since he showed up. I shifted my weight, only realizing that I had been standing right next to the cliff face as my right foot slipped off the side of it. I regained my balance, feeling embarrassed.

"That is understandable, I suppose," he said. I let out a sigh of great relief. Annoying my master would be the last thing I wanted to do. "But I still wish to know what you have been doing all this time," he said in a near monotone.

"Master, I h-have joined a small organization specialising in a-assassination. They have a database of many Pokemon which I b-believe may hold some of, if not a-all of, the Keepers," I explained.

"Good, good," he praised. "Do you have access to the database yet?" he asked.

"Not yet, master," I said. "I-I almost do though, it really comes down to a matter of trust. I expect to be able to have access to it soon though."

"That is...acceptable," he said quietly. "I can sense that a Keeper is nearby," he said, changing the subject.

"I-I have sensed that too," I said somewhat truthfully. I had noticed something, but whether or not it was a Keeper, I couldn't tell.

"I have to admit, the Keepers are well guarded," my master said to nobody in particular. "Still, they should all be dead before we know it, and I'll be able to get my revenge."

"Master, w-why did you pick me for this job?" I asked him. I had wondered that for a long time, wondering to myself why my master could possibly have picked me for such a massive task.

"I figured that you, of all people, would know this land. Besides, you have had such a terrible life, I figured I would give you a second chance," he said, with a very slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"T-Thank you s-so much, master," I said, bowing again, despite the sarcasm.

"Good, I guess I'll be seeing you later then," my master said to me, and without another word, he vanished.

So, there IS another Keeper nearby. It was hard to say where though; the powers that my master had given me weren't very strong, so that I could go under the radar easily. It was annoying, but I trust my master's judgement, going against it would have catastrophic results. That wasn't important, however, as I fully intended to follow my masters wishes. It is, after all, my chance to finally redeem myself. I'm not proud of what I did for all those years, but I know that if I'm able to kill all the Keepers, I will be able to break the seal on my master, and I will be rewarded greatly.

Well, I guess I better get going.


	21. The Second Gym

**Dusk POV**

As we past through the large city gates, we were greeted by an artificial river, a rather fancy looking bridge passing over it. How convenient.

"Water, water, water!" Gold shouted, diving straight into the river which created a large splash as he hit the water, which I couldn't help laughing at. I've got to admit, I was pretty damn thirsty. I hurried over the edge of the water, and started drinking as fast as I could. Ruby had the same idea, but at a considerably slower pace. Finally, I finished drinking the cool water, just as Gold emerged from the water.

"Oh man, my fur's all wet!" he moaned. "Ruby, this is all your fault," he said, giving her a playful shove. Everyone laughed at this, even Jon, who obviously couldn't understand Gold, but still got the joke. Jon had just sat down on a long bench, which was looking really appealing right now. I wandered over to the bench, jumping up onto the seat before stretching my legs. It was so good to be able to relax after that long walk. We had been going for quite a few days now, and apart from at nights and before we met up with Dawn again, we really hadn't had any time to relax. I've got to admit though; this journey has been making me a lot fitter then back at the enclosure. I would never have considered myself unfit before, but I just feel so much stronger now, with all the walking and battling.

After a few minutes of resting (and Gold madly trying to groom his fur), Jon decided that it was about time to leave for the Gym.

"...And there are a couple of potions," Jon finished after organizing his bag.

As we walked through the streets and past all the building, I began to notice different things about this city. First, there were so many people here. I remember there being lots of people back at the other cities, but I never really took much notice due to the shock of being out of my enclosure. Second, it was a lot cleaner then any of the other cities. All the streets were void of garbage unlike some of the other towns and cities, and everything had a very polished look about it. I like it here, if I weren't of been travelling around with Jon, I might of considered living here.

Finally we arrived at what was most definitely the Gym. It was a large dome shaped building with a glass roof. Although I couldn't read human words, I recognized the sign above the entrance as having the same funny symbols as at the Pewter City Gym. There were three of them, and I was guessing they spelt out the word Gym. The first thing I noticed as we entered the large sliding doors made of glass was that there were tons of people inside. Back at Pewter City, there was a person at the entrance that Jon spoke to, and Brock, but that was it!

Jon made his way over to the counter, where a woman sat behind it. "Ah, hi," Jon said to her. "My name is Jonathan, and I'm here to battle the Gym Leader!"

"Ah, Jonathan, right on time," the woman said to him happily. "Just go straight through, Misty should be waiting for you."

We entered the next room, and were greeted by a large pool filled with various water Pokemon in it. Sculptures of more water type Pokemon hung around the edges. Hold on, so this is a water type Gym? Score! I guess Gold wasn't right after all! At the back of the room, a woman, not that much older the Jon sat, happily watching the Pokemon play. She looked up at us as we came in, nodding when she realized that we were here to challenge her.

"I'm guessing you're Jon?" she asked, standing up.

"Correct," Jon answered.

"Okay guys, time to move to the other pool," she said to the Pokemon as she pressed a button on the wall. The button seemed to activate some underwater door, which all of the Pokemon exited through. As she pressed another button, a large platform was hoisted down onto the surface of the water by four metal bars which detached themselves from it as it hit the ground. The platform covered most of the water and had white markings across it that resembled a Pokeball. Overall, it was quite impressive, but no doubt it was really expensive.

"How does 2 on 2 sound?" She asked. Jon looked at us briefly before replying.

"Sure, why not?"

Jon seemed deep in thought as we took our place on the other side, he was probably deciding which Pokemon to use when facing Misty. Gold would seem like the obvious choice, seeing as he had the type advantage, but Jon might also use him as a back up and send in Ruby or I first. Who would he use?

"Gold, you're up," Jon said, answering my question. Gold jumped from the edge of the water to the platform, clearly excited for the battle.

Misty threw a Pokeball in to the air, an orange star shaped Pokemon exploding out from the bright light the ball created. I vaguely recognized the Pokemon as a Staryu.

"This should be easy enough," I heard Gold say.

"Type advantages only go so far," the Staryu reminded him. I'm really not sure how it was talking though, as it seemed to lack a mouth. It did, however, have a sort of large, valuable gem taking up half of its body which I imagine people like to rip out and sell for tons of human currency.

After the Staryus words, they started circling each other. Gold feinted an attack, getting a reaction instantly. Gold's eyes narrowed at this, the Staryu was obviously better then he had expected. Gold attacked again, discharging a bolt of lightning from his cheeks. The Staryu, who had probably expected another feint, was able to jump out of the way just in time. While still in the air, it started spinning rapidly, fast enough to keep itself off the ground. Gold prepared for the attack, ready to counter it. Jon seemed to pick up on this.

"Dodge it," he said firmly just as the Staryu spun towards Gold, much faster then I expected. Gold jumped out of the way just in time; the Staryu had barely missed both Gold, and the floor. It looked slightly disoriented as it finished its spin, which Gold took advantage of by slamming straight into it. It hit the ground painfully, which caused the platform to rock; but it got up again quickly and regained its composure.

"Impressive!" I heard it say under its breath. The star-shaped Pokemon shot a burst of water out of its body, which Gold avoided by jumping into the air. Gold realized what he had done just a moment too late, as the Staryu shot another burst of water straight into Gold, who was unable to avoid the attack. He hit the ground painfully, bouncing off of the platform and into the water. The Staryu started spinning rapidly agaib before submerging itself into the water before Gold was able to get back onto the platform. The only thing I was able to see behind the platform was the water pouring up onto the platform as the Staryu sped towards Gold. Just before it reached the spot where the Pikachu hit the water though, the entire pool lit up briefly, which was followed by the Staryu racing to get back on the ground as sparks flew off it in every direction. I imagine that getting electrocuted while underwater would hurt.

Gold grinned as he got out of the water, shaking the water off of his wet fur. As the Staryu tried to catch its breath, Gold began to creep up behind it, charging up an electrical attack. Although Gold had thought that it mustn't have noticed him, the Staryu seemed to of sensed him approaching, as he turned around at the last moment, knocking him off of his feet with a burst of water. As Gold hit the ground, the Staryu lifted itself off of it and started spinning. Gold seemed too dizzy to be able to dodge, as it rammed straight into him. As he got up again, it slammed into his stomach, still spinning. Gold tried to get up, but it seemed he was winded. The Staryu swooped in for the final blow, but just before it hit, Gold rolled over and shot a blast of electricity straight into the centre of its body.

It seemed to have worked perfectly. The Pokemon fell straight to the floor. It was clearly unconscious.

Yes! One down, one to go! Gold pumped his fist into the air before wincing. I could see that he was bleeding from where the Staryu had hit him.

"Nice work Gold!" Jon praised, as Misty returned her Pokemon to its Pokeball. Jon got out his Pokeball so Gold could rest, but he shook head furiously. "Okay, I guess I can just use a potion."

Gold walked over to Jon, who sprayed the potion on his wound, gaining an almost instant response. The Pikachu seemed in no pain at all, although he did still look exhausted. He then hurried over back onto the platform to see who was next.

"Go Starmie," Misty said, throwing another Pokeball in the air. A bright light exploded out of the ball, and the Starmie flew out of it. It very much resembled the Staryu from before except it was blue and had ten points instead of five.

Gold shot an electric attack at the Starmie, which it easily avoided. It responded with an Ice Beam, which Gold didn't have time to avoid, and he was thrown to the ground. He tried to get up, but his foot was frozen to the platform. The Starmie took advantage of his brief confusion by ramming into him, hard enough so that it smashed the ice as the Pikachu was pushed to the ground. It tried to attack again, but Gold was too quick. Just at the last moment, Gold jumped out of the way, blasting it was a burst of electricity.

It had obviously been underestimating Gold, as it seemed surprised for being hit. It recovered quickly though, hitting Gold with a blast of water. Gold was knocked to the ground; he seemed to be really exhausted. Gold got up again, dodging another blast of water from the Starmie. He still seemed keen to fight, although for how long he could fight was anyone's guess. Gold slammed straight into the Starmie, too quick for it to retaliate, which pushed him to the ground. Just as the Pokemon got up again, Gold rammed into it for a second time. Before he was able to attack again though, the Starmie got up and shot a blast of ice straight at Gold.

It dealed the final blow by slamming into Golds stomach. Gold tried to get up, but he was too weak to be able to do anything. Jon instantly returned him to his Pokeball.

"Alright Dusk, it's your turn," Jon said to me. Awesome! I jumped onto the platform, ready to fight the Starmie.

This should be fun!

**Happy First Birthday to From the Shadows! It's amazing to think that I started this fic an entire year ago. Honestly, I would have liked to have updated more often, 21 chapters in a year really doesn't seem like that many, but still, I'm proud of what I've achieved. Here's hoping for another few years to come!**

**Oh, and I would really appreciate it if you could review what I've done so far, even if you don't normally review. t means a lot to me!**


	22. Moonlight Exchange

The Starmie responded instantly, shooting a blast of water straight at me which I jumped out of the way of, straight into a second blast of water. I was pushed painfully to the ground, my side aching from where I had slammed into the platform. As I got up, I felt it rock slightly from beneath my feet.

I responded by slamming straight into the Starmie. It got up straight away, and I noticed it was slightly disoriented. I hid a grin at this, maybe this won't be as hard as I thought it might be.

The water type Pokemon started spinning in the air, turning on its side and speeding straight towards me. Just before it hit me though, I was able to jump in the air and land on top of it, just like that Pidgey all those days ago, causing the Starmie to crash to the ground. It got up again, somewhat slowly this time, giving me the impression that I had disoriented it again. I decided against trying to hit him again, as to give it the chance to respond. He could be faking it anyway, as to give me false hope. I watched him continuously, letting in, but not letting myself be distracted, by the shouts of encouragement from Jon, Ruby and Gold, although Gold's were rather quiet; he didn't appear to be strong enough to shout, which felt odd coming from Gold. The water type shot multiple small and golden stars at me, which I casually jumped out of the way of.

However, just as I jumped, the stars changed course to where I had landed, striking me straight in the chest, causing me to nearly lose my balance. "Come on Dusk, you can do it!" Ruby called from the sidelines. I smiled, acknowledging her words of support.

Pushing myself forward, I slammed into it before it was able to shoot more stars. It crashed to the ground, just seemingly able to stand up again.

"Use swift again!" The Gym Leader called from the sidelines. The Starmie followed her orders by shooting more stars at me, which I tried to avoid by using Quick Attack this time, but it failed again and I was struck in my side. I stayed on my feet though; his attack didn't seem to be as strong as before. That may hopefully be because he's exhausted and can't fight for much longer. I could take advantage of that.

I feinted an attack, causing him to jump. I heard a small sigh of relief from wherever the hell his mouth was, indicating that he didn't want to keep fighting for much longer. Gee, Gold must have done a surprising amount of damage to him.

I dashed forward before the water type had the chance to retaliate. Slamming into it again, it was knocked to the edge of the platform, causing it to rock slightly, before it pushed itself into the water. Oh great. Now, if it was smart, it would rest in the water so that I wouldn't be able to attack it as all my attacks were physical. Not only that, but I wouldn't be able to tell where in the water it was, and it could attack me from behind at any moment.

I closed my eyes, using my other senses to find where the Starmie was hidden. In the blackness, I felt the platform rise very slightly from my left side, and I very faintly heard the sound of the water hit slap the solid ground. It was moving to behind where I was, slow enough so that it could barely be heard, and fast enough so that I wouldn't have much time to respond. Finally, I felt the movements stop right behind me. Everyone was silent.

I instinctively spun around, pushing myself into a Quick Attack just as I saw the water burst, and the Starmie burst from it. The Starmie didn't have time to respond before I slammed into it, sending it flying before it hit the ground with a sense of finality right next to where Ruby was standing.

Applause rang out through the hall from Jon, Gold and Ruby as I stumbled over to where they were, jumping over the water between the platform and the rest of the room. I made my way over next to Jon and pushed myself to the floor and closed my eyes. The battle had sure made me weary, despite the minimum amount of hits I had sustained. As I lied there, I felt the warm sun pound against me.

"Congrats," Gold said, as Jon walked away towards the Gym Leader.

"Thanks," I responded.

"You were really good out there," Ruby praised.

"I was just doing the best I could," I replied.

I opened my eyes and looked over where Jon was. The Gym Leader was handing him something small, presumedly the badge. It felt great to have a second one now. Two down, six to go!

* * *

It wasn't long before we said our goodbye's to the Pokemon at the Gym were on our way again. Between leaving the Gym and arriving at the Pokemon Center, Jon seemed to be studying the badge, which was the shape of a drop of rain. After Gold and I were healed using their strange machinery, we continued on our way until we got to a large hill. The sun was falling behind the mountains in the distance, creating a gorgeous sunset as Jon unpacked the stuff that we would be needing for the night. Among the mountains, a single one towered over the rest, which I instantly recognized as Mt. Moon.

I wonder where Dawn was right now. Chances are that she would be somewhere near where we had slept last night, near where I had gotten lost. If it wasn't for Mercury, I probably never would have gotten back. It makes me wonder whether or not I would see him again.

"Hey Dusk," Gold said, walking over next to me and completely collapsing on the ground.

"Ah...hey," I replied.

"Great day, huh?" He said.

"Yeah," I responded.

"You know, I could have easily beaten that Starmie if Jon hadn't gotten in the way."

"Of course you could have," I replied sarcastically.

Gold jumped to his feet. "You know, I easily could have if Jon had just given me a chance! Really!"

I sighed. "Of course."

"I TOTALLY COULD! GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE AND I WILL HIT HIM SO HARD HE'LL DIE!" He yelled, punching at the air. There was a terrible cracking noise and he fell over, whimpering and clutching his paw. I laughed.

"It's not funny!" He said, putting on a fake angry voice.

"Who said it was?" I replied.

"You did!" He retorted, looking happy as if he had just won a long debate.

"Actually, I just laughed, I didn't actually say anything."

"Hey guys, I think we better rest now!" Jon called to us and Ruby, who seemed to have been studying the contents of Jon's bag.

"Whatever," Gold said to me in a whisper as we made our way over to at the end of Jon's sleeping bag. To be honest, I wished that Jon could buy a us all a separate sleeping bag to lie on, as it was rather difficult all fitting on it, and Jon regularly rolled over, which made it that much more challenging to get to sleep. I could sleep in my Pokeball, but I find it strange in there, in the simulated environment.

"Goodnight guys," was the last thing I remembered saying before I fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

_The light was fading. The dark clouds in the sky were spreading quickly, leaving the land deserted. Seven balls of light were placed randomly throughout the land, and two of them were swallowed by the darkness. From the shadows, a Pokemon appeared, running towards the lights. However, another Pokemon appeared from the sky, and blocked the first Pokemon's path. Despite its efforts, the first Pokemon got past, and made its way to all the balls of light. Upon touching them, they flew into the sky and were swallowed by the darkness._

_As the last one flew into the shadows, the darkness completely consumed the light before all of it gathered in a single spot in the sky, creating a sphere of shadow. The sphere exploded, and from it came Evil. Evil destroyed the land, every single living creature that had not yet been swallowed by the shadows. The Pokemon stood by its side, watching with glee as everything was destroyed. The second Pokemon was the only thing left fighting against them._

* * *

I awoke with a start. What a weird dream. It wasn't just that it was weird; it was that it felt so real.

Opening my eyes, they darted across my line of sight to see what had awoken me. Finally I found it; it was Jon, who had gotten out of his sleeping bag. He must have done it very carefully though, neither Gold nor Ruby seemed to have been woken up by him. He took out the water bottle from his bag, and after having a small drink went over to the side of a small cliff watching over the lights of the city. After a moment of consideration, I got up slowly and went over next to him.

"Wha-? Oh, hey Dusk."

Looking up at him, I noticed for the slightest moment what looked like a tear in his eye, but it was wiped away quickly. "Sorry Dusk," he said casually, stroking my back. "I just miss everyone."

He wasn't alone, apart from seeing Dawn earlier today (or was it yesterday?), I haven't met anyone from my enclosure at all! I haven't seen my parents for months and months either.

"I guess that these past few days, I've just been trying to suppress the memories of my home. I've been trying to focus on the future, rather than the past. But, I guess that the only way for me to become the greatest trainer in the world is to learn from the past, and not try to just forget about it," he said, smiling slightly.

"It's just that once I start thinking about my friends and family again, I feel this overwhelming sadness that I can't control, like I'll never see them again. It took seeing Robyn again, and you seeing that Eevee again to realize that I had just as much to lose from leaving Pallet Town as I had to gain from starting this adventure. I feel so alone now." For a brief moment, I thought I saw another tear reflecting the few stars above the city in his eye, but it was wiped away quickly.

"But you're not alone," I said, aware that he couldn't understand me. "You have us!" I pointed my head at Gold and Ruby to get my point across.

"I have you guys, don't I?" He said in not much more than a whisper as he looked over the city. "You're right; I guess I'm not alone. But still, while you guys are awesome, I've only known you three for a few days. I'm not trying to offend you, so don't take it personally, but you guys aren't really my mum, or my sister." I knew what he meant; I doubt that we could ever replace his family. "Looking back, I sort of wish that I had never left my home."

"But, I suppose that we never would have met if I hadn't taken that step forward. If I had never tried, I would never be where I am today! Even though it has only been a few days, I've already learnt so much, and I've made some new friends too!"

We sat there in silence for a few moments, before Jon started talking again. "I guess that I may only be able to become the greatest trainer if I learn from my past and apply it to my future. Dusk, let's make a promise, that together we will become the greatest trainer and strongest Pokemon in the world! That we will help each other until we reach our goal!"

"Okay!" I said cheerfully.

"Excellent!" He responded. "I know that it will be tough, but together Ruby, Gold, you, me, and any other Pokemon that join us will become famous!" He finished.

"I'm looking forward to it," I replied.

"And now I guess we better get to sleep," Jon said, much more cheerfully than before.


End file.
